New Beginnings
by Aengus
Summary: Now up for adoption, PM with your request.
1. Chapter 1

Sadly I don not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.

Kohona Village, very Early in the morning, about six a.m. It was a few days before the genin exam at the school. It was raining hard. As one of the teachers, Kyuki, approached the school, she noticed a small form sleeping next to the wall of the school. Normally there wouldn't have been a reason for her to stop, there were beggars in Kohona, but normally they were adults, but this was a child… he looked so small.

The small figure moved, a fox tail wrapped around itself, and a pair of fox ears twitched. Kyuki gasped… it was Kitsune Naruto. Well… Normally it would be Uzumaki Naruto, but the villagers had petitioned the Hokage to remove his family name, and he had no choice but to do so. He did it privately, when it was normally a public shaming, but the Hokage had insisted and no one was going to get in his way. Those who knew the young boy were disappointed in the village, but there was nothing that they could do about it.

"Kitsune-chan…" she whispered, she and some one of the girls that saw him regularly called him that but no one else. The small figure whimpered and shrunk into the wall. If she had to guess the child was about four, maybe five… He was always at the school, though none of the teachers knew why he was there, he was supposed to be at an orphanage. "Naruto…" He whimpered again, and a sob escaped his throat.

"No…" he cried out. "N-No m-m-mo-ore! I di-didn't mean to… I-I'm s-s-sorry!"

The sight broke her heart. She got down on to her knees and held out her arms. "Kitsune-chan… I'm not going to hurt you…"

The child looked up at her, his eyes wide and hopeful. "You won't?" There was enough emotion in the voice to make anyone teary.

Kyuki shook her head and smiled at him, her arms still held out to embrace him. Slowly and shyly he crawled from his position against and moved to her. Once he was close enough for her to pull him closer, she did so, holding him against her. She cradled him in her arms, and he wrapped him small arms around her neck and buried his face in the crook of her neck. He was so small, not to mention the fact that she could feel every bone in his body.

She picked the small fox-child up and he wrapped him small legs around her mid section, trying to stay as close as possible to her. She held him just like she had done for her little brother when he was small enough for her to carry him. She entered the academy building and began walking briskly down the dark and quiet corridor, she heard voices, reminding her why she had to be there at that ungodly hour. There was a staff meeting scheduled to decide on what the potential genin were to be tested on.

She made a decision that would change the life of those at the meeting forever. She marched into the meeting still holding the kitsune in her arms. The harsh light in the room caused Naruto to whimper and burrow into her neck more. The conversation in the room stopped.

Silence.

Kakashi, a new jounin, barely looked at Kyuki then to the child in her arms. He paused, and looked closer at the kitsune. "Dear god…" he gasped. The other teachers stared at him, the son of "White Fang" was never shocked. "Is it… him?"

Kyuki nodded, her face grim.

Kakashi held out his arms, "C-Can I hold him?"

Everyone in the room was staring now. This was too unreal.

Slowly and carefully Kyuki transferred the scared child to Kakashi. Naruto looked confused for a few moments before burrowing into the warm arms that now held him, smiling slightly. Kakashi looked up at the others, "Where did you find him?"

"He was outside the door… From the dry spot he left behind, I'd say that he's been curled up there for quite a while." Said Kyuki softly, she didn't want to disturb Naruto, he looked so calm and there was a smile on his lips as Kakashi started to stroke his hair, and sure enough, in a few moments the kitsune was fast asleep.

Iruka, a chuunin, looked hard at the boy, then his gaze softened. "My family was killed by the Kyuubi, I feel like I want to hate him, and yet… It feels like… he should be my son… my wife died in childbirth… her and the baby."

There was silence that met this remark.

Another chuunin spoke up. "I don't get what you people are all uppity about. You're all fawning over a demon chi-" That chuunin was grabbed by several pairs of hands and was bodily thrown from the building, via a window.

Gai looked at all of them, he was smiling, which he never stopped doing.

The group had gone back to discussing the upcoming exam, that is until a young chuunin came dashing in as fast as he could run. Breathing hard he gasped "Message from the Hokage-sama."

As the chuunin collapsed, Iruka grabbed the note and read it aloud. _"'I have just received news that Kitsune Naruto has been forcefully removed from the orphanage. Find him and report to me. Kakashi, Iruka, and Kyuki are ordered to accompany him.' _…Well should we go now, or wait until the little one is more calm and relaxed."

The small snore that met their ears from Kakashi's lap, made them all smile. "I don't think he can be anymore relaxed that he is right now… Gai would you please run to the Hokage and tell him that he either has to come here or wait until morning to see Kitsune-chan."

"There is no need for that Kakashi…" came the voice of the third. "I am already here… Ah… I see that you've found the little one…"

"Yes… but Kyuki-san deserves the credit…" sighed Kakashi holding the child tighter to him. "She's the one that found him out in the rain."

"Yes well…" stuttered the Hokage. "What are we going to do with him; he's to young to live on his own."

Jiraiya came in through the window that the group of them had thrown the young chuunin through. "I can take him."

"Like hell you will" retorted Kyuki. "If he goes with you, he'll become a pervert like you."

An argument erupted from many of the jounin and the others in the room, all Naruto haters were forcibly ejected out the window. One hater was actually thrown out by the Hokage himself, but that's another story. The fighting escalated to a point were the jounin and chuunin were about to start using ninjitsu or genjitsu on each other. A lone voice cut through the arguments.

"I'll take him…"

I was Kakashi.

That shut everyone up.

No one even argued the point.

Not even the Hokage.

"Since there are no arguments I'll take my foster son and go…" and before anyone could stop him, Kakashi and the kitsune were gone in a puff of smoke.

"Well now…" said the Hokage after a few moments of a very awkward Silence. "Now that that's been settled, I'll just totter off… Oh my the way… Jiraiya?"

"Yah?"

"When's the next book of _Icha Icha Paradise _due out?"

"You lecher!" shouted Kyuki.

**Elsewhere in Kohona…**

Kakashi had arrived in his room, with the Kitsune child in his arms. Walking quietly, he took the child into his room and put him on his bed. Looking down at the boy, who the instant he touched the blankets he snuggled into them, he kissed the child's forehead. "I promised your mother that I'd look after you no mater what happens…" He walked out into his living room and puffed back over to the school, he may have just become a foster parent but there was still work to be done.

It had barely taken ten minutes to finish the negotiations and Kakashi had paid one bit of attention to any of it. After wards he pulled Kyuki aside.

"I need your help."

"Huh?"

"I need your help."

"I heard you the first time. I was just a bit shocked that you, of all people, would for help."

"I need help finding things for my little fox… I need to get him better clothes… Not to mention I don't have the kind of food that would be good for him…"

Kyuki normally would've enjoyed Kakashi squirm, but this was different, it involved Naruto. She grabbed a bit of paper and wrote furiously.

"What the-"

"Here. Meet me at the academy at eight in the morning tomorrow, I'll show you were to go and everything. No offence, but I don't trust you…" Kyuki said this all very fast as she handed him the paper, it was covered in writing. Names of stores and other things that looked like the exact things that Kakashi needed to know.

"Huh?"

"Get going! Do you want him to wake up with out you?"

Kakashi's one visible eye widened and he cursed, and he disappeared in another puff of smoke.

**Back in Kakashi's Room**

Kakashi arrived in a smaller puff of smoke than when he left.

He crept into his bed room to check on his charge. The kitsune was sleeping soundly. He was extremely emaciated and the shirt he was wearing a shirt that was so frayed and grayed that it was almost impossible to see the design on it.

Kakashi almost fainted.

It was the symbol of the Hyuuga clan…

Or more precisely it was the symbol of the heiress; Hyuuga hinta.

Where in the world had it come from?

He'd figure that out when the kid woke up.

Kakashi went into his living room and pulled a battered recliner from his college days into his bed room. Softly Kakashi went about his apartment grabbing a pillow off of the floor and a blanket from the closet. After grabbing what he needed to finish out what was left of the night, Kakashi settled into the chair, pulled out his favorite book, _Come Come Paradise vol. 1_, and began to read.

Hours later, the sun was streaming through the window, and Kakashi was staring in on volume five of the series when Naruto woke up.

He yawned a huge yawn, and he stretched much like a fox would just after it woke up. Kakashi thought that when he scratched behind his fox ears with his foot it was the cutest things he'd ever scene. '_Oh yeah… the girls are just going to love him'_ thought the masked jounin. He looked around the room, and shrank away from Kakashi.

Kakashi looked surprised as the child shrank away from him, then he laughed a great booming, heartfelt laugh.

Naruto cocked his head at him, oh there was a lot of Kyuubi in him.

"Kitsune-chan…" gasped Kakashi through the remainder of his laughing, he had fallen off of the chair had had rolled about on the floor. Naruto had no idea what was so funny. "Sorry Naruto." He picked himself up off of the ground, and peeked over the edge of the bed to look at the top of the bed where Naruto was. The child was staring at him; there was no fear on his face, no emotion at all. Well nothing was a good way to start.

"Who are you?" the kid asked. There was no malice in his voice, just curiosity.

"I am the great Kakashi… And I have the great honor of… um… well… I guess I get to be your big brother… That is if you want one, otherwise-" But before he could finish Naruto had jumped at him and had his arms and legs wrapped around his torso knocking him to the floor.

He looked up into the man's eye; there was hope in his amazingly blue eyes. "Anichan (1)?"

Kakashi smiled, or at least Naruto thought he did, you never could tell with that stupid mask. "I like it."

Naruto's grin just widened.

After a few more minuets of Naruto attempting to break his ribs, Kakashi looked up at his clock, one of those cheesy ones that shaped like cat with the moving tail and eyes, it was nearly eight. "Well now, Naru-"

"Kitsune-chan."

Kakashi smiled through his mask, there were few people whom Naruto allowed 'Kitsune-chan.' "Okay Kitsune-chan… We've got to go… Kyuki's meeting us to take you shopping and we have a meeting with the Hokage. I don't know much about kids, so she'll be helping…"

The joy on Naruto's face faded, just a bit, and he got off of Kakashi's chest. As soon as his charge was off of his chest, Kakashi jumped to his feet. The Kitsune barely reached his waist with the tips of his fox ears.

Naruto was staring at his bloody bare feet.

Kakashi swept the boy off of his feet and placed him on his shoulders all the while thinking '_And I'll ask the Hokage about a doctor appointment_,' and before the fox-child say anything Kakashi walked out of the apartment and on to the street. To the people who were either new to the village or visiting the village the two of them looked like Father and son or big and little brothers.

Luckily for Naruto, he was with Kakashi; the villagers were feeling particularly cruel today. Some of the men had rocks in their hands, and one or two of the women stood in their doorways, arms crossed, holding either a wok or a rolling pin. Naruto, fearing bodily harm, wrapped his tail around Kakashi's neck, although not tight enough to choke his anichan

Naruto had a death grip on Kakashi's head as the two of them walked through village. Kakashi took note of the villagers hate filled expressions and the few and far between that had either pity or kindness in them. It gave him hope that there were those willing to at least meet him and maybe give a chance.

It didn't take the two of them long to reach the Hokage tower, the meeting with the Hokage was first. The old man had a soft spot in his heart for the fox child and there was almost nothing that he wouldn't do for the child. As the two of them entered the office that the current Hokage used, they met two others in the room.

"Oh…" said Kakashi. "Sorry Hokage-sama. We didn't know you had other guests, we'll wait for you to be done outside…" As Kakashi made to close the door, Naruto leapt off of his shoulders and ran into the room.

"Okasa-san!" Yelled the kitsune. Rushing up to the older woman in the room.

"Oh! Kitsune-chan!" she picked up the child and placed him on her lap, hugging him. "Where have you been? We were so worried when you didn't show up to escort Hinta-chan to the playground today."

Kakashi was staring, dumbfounded. Here was one of the leading families in the village and the heiress and the female head in the family, treating him like one of their own children. '_So that's how he got that shirt…_'

"Come on in Kakashi, these two are here to help decide were Kitsune-chan is going to go when you have an extended mission."

"No question… He will come and stay with us in the Hyuuga house." Said Mrs. Hyuuga.

""But-" started the Hokage and Kakashi in unison.

"My husband will have nothing to do with it, it is MY home and I do run everything inside of it."

The adults in the room were staring at her, their eyes wide. She was speaking so adamantly about taking in Naruto when others in the village would've gladly killed him as soon as or rather than look at him.

"So I get to stay with you when anichan is away on a mission?" asked Naruto from the lap of Mrs. Hyuuga.

"Of course you can." Replied the woman, looking fondly at fox-child. She looked up and mouthed "Anichan?" to Kakashi who just shrugged.

"Yay!" shouted two young voices in complete unison. Everyone, but Naruto, had forgotten that Hinta was even in the room. Naruto got off his "okasa-san" and ran to Hinta and pulled her into a hug, she didn't even blush.

Kakashi looked down at his watch and gasped. "Kitsune-chan… we've got to go. Kyuki-san will be waiting! Sorry about leaving like this, but I need to take my little fox kit out to shop for new clothing…" he was about to say visit the doctor but as he looked at his 'little brother's' feet, which weren't bloody or bleeding at all anymore.

"Shopping without us? Never. We'll come along and help ensure that you pay fair prices and help pay for everything. After everything he's done for Hinta-chan we have to help."

Kakashi just stared at the Hyuuga woman with a wide eye. The young mother just laughed at him and grabbed his arm and pulled him along as Naruto pulled Hinta along after him and out the door. But as the four of them go closer to the door that led to the outside, Naruto's pace slowed and eventually he ran to get behind Kakashi'd legs. The Jounin looked at the two Hyuugas and grinned apologetically as he lifted the fox child onto his shoulders, and Naruto resumed his death grip on his big brother's head.

Once Naruto was ready and death grip in place the four of them walked out into the sunshine of the day… And right into a very angry Kyuki.

"Where the he-… uh… heck have you been!" she ranted as she approached to them, she was pissed. "I've been waiting for an hour. I know that you're normally late for everything but I assumed that you'd actually be one time when it came to Kitsune-chan!"

Kyuki would continued ranting but the older Hyuuga stopped him. "I am sorry, Kyuki-sensei, but it is out fault that they are late. I refused to let the two of them leave without us. I wanted to help pay for everything and also take you to some very special shops that will take cater to him."

Kyuki just stared at the woman. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates. "S-sorry ma'am. If you don't mind could you please tell me your name?"

"Why of course. My name is Hyuuga Hiroshi." If Kyuki wasn't dumbstruck before, she sure as hell was now. Here was the leading female in all of Kohona, and she was helping the lowest of lows (in the eyes of the villagers not her) with her personal finances.

"Let's go!" shouted Naruto, completely ignorant of the conversation going on between them.

Sadly, because of his outburst, some idiot threw a rock at him and it hit him. Knocking him off of his big brother's shoulders. Kakashi, Kyuki, Hiroshi, and Hinta never saw the rock, but before they could act, four members of the ANBU squad descended on the perpetrator and drug him off. After seeing the ANBU come out of their hiding place, Kakashi moved to his charge.

Naruto was holding the back of his head and crying softly. "Ow…" he whispered. Kakashi knew that most children his age would've carried on and on about receiving wound like that, but the way that he was being so quiet made him very worried.

"Come now Kitsune-chan…" cooed Kakashi kneeling down to his level. "Do you still want to go through with today?"

The small boy nodded, but didn't say anything. That troubled Kakashi even more than the fact that Naruto wasn't crying. Kakashi picked the boy up and placed him on his shoulders again, but this time, Kyuki was behind the two of them.

The actual shopping was the least amount of trouble they had the entire time. The combination of two of the Hyuuga clan, and two jounin kept the shop keepers tongues and actions in line. By the end of the expedition, Naruto had an entire new wardrobe, and even a few kunai, given to him by a kind gentle man from the Hidden-Village of Snow who knew nothing of Naruto. The interesting thing about all the clothing is that Naruto insisted that the insignia on his shirt, also the symbol of Hyuuga Hinta, embroidered on all of his new clothing, which consisted of orange pants and black shirts and one matching orange jacket. All of that in addition to the food and other items that they had had delivered to Kakashi's apartment.

It was well into the evening by the time all the shopping was done. "Well…" sighed Hiroshi, holding a sleeping Hinta. "I hope to see you tomorrow Kitsune-chan."

"Good night Okasa-san…" whispered Naruto, the light from the day's events was gone, he seemed smaller than normal and he was hiding behind Kakashi's legs. The three adults in the group all locked eyes, there was shock in their eyes. Naruto, although quiet at some times was usually loud and happy, this new Naruto was something that they had never seen before.

Kakashi took his hand and pulled him in front of him so that he could lift the small boy onto his shoulders once again. The adults bid their final farewells to each other and to Naruto, and Kakashi 'poofed' away from the others with Naruto and the kid's new clothes. Hiroshi and Kyuki bid each other goodnight and the two of them left for their respective homes.

**BACK IN KAKASHI'S APARTMENT**

After arriving Kakashi set Naruto on his bed, his apartment only had a bedroom and a kitchen with a small hallway connecting the two of them that also led to the door. "Stay put for a second…" sighed the jounin, "I'm going to go make us some tea and then the two of us are going to have a conversation."

Naruto just nodded, but didn't say anything, he looked more scared than Kakashi had ever seen him.

Kakashi went into the kitchen and shot a kettle of water with some chakra to cause it to boil almost instantly. Tea was even quicker to make, and he poured it into two chipped mugs, and went straight into his bedroom. He sighed upon entering, there was his little brother curled up into a little ball, shaking, and whimpering. He set the tea down on his dresser, and sat next to Naruto. "Kitsune-chan…" he whispered. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you… Come now, drink your tea…"

Naruto looked up from his ball, the fear was once again gone, and there was the broken little boy that he had seen, albeit briefly, the previous night. "I don't want to go back… I don't want to leave… Don- make me leave…P-please anichan d-don- make me go 'way."

Kakashi just smiled, and pulled the small child close and wrapped an arm around him and began to stroke his back. "Sh-sh-sh-shh…" he cooed. "I don't want you to leave… I want you to stay for as long as you want…"

Naruto looked up at Kakashi, there were tears streaming down his face. "R-really?"

"Of course."

Naruto smiled and burrowed into his big brother's chest, effectively knocking Kakashi over onto his back. The two of them rolled about, Kakashi finding out that his little fox was extremely ticklish, their tea completely forgotten and grew cold. Eventually the two of them fell asleep, Naruto's head pillowed on Kakashi's chest.

Author's Notes

Well that's the beginning…

I Hope you liked it better than others have enjoyed my Harry Potter fics. Today I learned a valuable lesson in writing, you absolutely cannot please everyone, and there will always be that one person(s) who will hate your writing. I am referring to (person shall remain nameless), a person who simply hate all of writing just because he/she sees me as a "2bit hack" who cannot do anything but steal the ideas of other authors and tweak my favorite characters so that they can do no wrong. I won't get into anymore bitching so review me if you have any ideas, if they're good I might use them, and of course I'll give you credit.

Cheers

Aengus


	2. Chapter 2

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.

By the way, for those of you who were wondering and didn't figure it out, anichan means "big brother." It turns out that I was wrong in calling Hinata, Hinta, whoops.

One last note: This chapter takes the leap from four years old to 13, when they're about to leave the academy. I must remind you that this is massively AU and many characters are OC, but I think that that's okay, I enjoy writing it and I hope you'll keep reading.

Mourning broke, sending sun into Kakashi's bed room.

Kakashi had been awake for at least an hour, maybe longer. Naruto was still half sleeping on top of his chest, and every now and then one of his fox ears would twitch. He didn't dare move out from under him, there were too many open wounds in the boy's emotions, and if he woke up alone...

Slowly, Kakashi began to run his fingers through otouto's (1) hair, it was thick and silky, very much like fox fur. It was an odd color, compared to his normal hair, a deep reddish orange.

This was the last place that he'd ever thought that he'd be, here with a small child, sleeping on him like either a very close little brother would or like what he imagined his son would've done…

There was something very special about this boy. Even though he knew the child's mother and had made him make a promise to her about the boy, this went beyond that… It was truly like he had found a little brother with whom he could have all of those things that one was supposed to as a child, but he never did. His father wasn't exactly the best father figure in the world, and his mother had died when he was very young, thus he was left to raise himself, much like Naruto, although he had the support of the village while Naruto didn't… Hell the vast majority of the entire Kohona Village hated, despised him, some even wanted him dead.

It was very late in the morning when Naruto finally awoke. He did everything he did the previous day when he awoke, he would yawn a huge yawn, and he stretched much like a fox would and he scratched behind his fox ears with his foot. All of this after rolling off of Kakashi's chest, he rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. He grinned as he set his eyes on his anichan, showing slightly elongated canines.

"Good morning anichan!" he shouted barreling into Kakashi again.

"Good morning Kitsune-chan!" replied Kakashi rubbing the child's back, there was that feeling again, his little brother back where he belonged, never to return to the streets again. "Well… How about some breakfast, my little fox?"

"Breakfast?" Naruto cocked his head, questioning. "What's that?"

Kakashi just stared, completely dumbfounded. There was no explanation for this sweet little boy not to know what the meals of the day were. "You mean to tell me that you have no idea that what breakfast is? What about Lunch?" Naruto shook his head. "Dinner?" again Naruto shook his head no. "You mean to tell me that they didn't give you three meals at that orphanage?"

"Three meals?"

"Dear god…" Kakashi put his head in his hands. He vowed that from now on, his little brother would have everything that he had missed out on already… although he'd need Kyuki-san's help after a while. "Come my little fox, we need to go and meet some people and then go to the Hokage. Bu-ut before we go, how about we get you into your new clothes."

And before Naruto could say or do anything, Kakashi whipped Naruto's old shirt off of him and pulled on one of the black ones with the red symbol of Hyuuga Hinta over his head. He then handed him a pair of his new pants, smiling. "I'm not going to put these on for you…" Naruto dropped his old pants and pulled on the orange pants that Kakashi held out.

"Ready?" asked Kakashi.

Naruto looked confused, but he grinned that huge grin, showing off of his teeth and shouted "Yeah!"

Kakashi whipped Naruto off of his feet, spun him around, causing the little boy to giggle with delight before placing him on his shoulders. Kakashi then moved over to his window and jumped out onto his roof. Naruto again wrapped his tail around Kakashi's neck but he gasped as Kakashi ran from roof top to roof top.

It wasn't long before the two of them reached the academy. Not pausing for a second, Kakashi burst through a window of a class room containing a small number of students, that's when they stopped; that class was practicing throwing kunai. Other than that there were no delays.

"First stop." Said Kakashi to Naruto pausing outside a door, numbered in plain black letters. He pushed the door open, and walked into a class on the finer points of ninjutsu taught by Kyuki. The students were in the middle of a test, overseen by Iruka, a better judge on NinJustu that Kyuki ever was. The test stopped as Kakashi entered, and all eyes turned to the jounin and the kitsune on his shoulders. "Kyuki-san we have a major problem that deals with something very close to the both of us. We need to go…"

"Now?" she asked, obviously ticked.

"Now." Replied Kakashi, moving Naruto's tail out of the path of his mouth, taking special precaution to move his visible eye to it and nod his head to the kitsune. Kyuki got the hint, and she nodded, all of the anger was gone from her face.

"Iruka-sensei, I trust that you can take care of the rest of testing without my presence, there's something that has come up." She jerked her head to the child on Kakashi's shoulders, and the message was relayed to Iruka.

"Of course Kyuki-sensei, I'll make sure that these punks are up to standard by the time you get back…"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

"Good." The three of them left, but not before one of the students mumbled; "Damn fox."

The three adults turned to him and yelled "YOU FAIL!"

That having been shouted the tree of them left, with Kakashi and Kyuki feeling very good with themselves, and looking very smug. Once outside, Kyuki stopped dead in her tracks.

"Okay Kakashi-san, why did you pull me out of my class?" she looked from Naruto to Kakashi and back, very worried.

"Later we need to go and fetch Hiroshi-sama then to the Hokage, I really don't want to explain more than once." Replied Kakashi, adjusting Naruto on his shoulders so that he could run faster. "Come, to the Hyuuga compound."

The two of them set off at their fastest speed, on top of that, they ran on the roof tops like Kakashi had before. It barely took the two runners a minute to reach the compound.

The Hyuuga compound reminded the them of a giant castle, modeled after a castle they had seen in a fictional book about some place called _Japan_, the castle was the _Osaka Castle_ or a.k.a. _The White Castle_, but the two of them knew that something like that could never had been built without the assistance of Charka.

On the grounds there were several full grown trees surrounding the complex, leading up to the front door was a very large compound that had been paved in the majority with worn stone slabs. In the middle of the great courtyard was a huge cherry tree, currently covered in the pink cherry blossoms, certainly a beautiful addition to ascetic quality of the courtyard… or whatever that meant.

The entire house was pure white, although the edges and the roof were a dark turquoise-blue color. The door was almost twice the height of Kakashi's impressive 5'11". It opened without either of them knocking or announcing their presence, and Hiroshi with Hinata. They looked surprised.

"Come in." said Hiroshi after reading into Kakashi's worried face. She had recently learned that there wasn't much that fazed the copy-cat ninja, only things that affected his "little fox" got any sort of reaction out of him. "Hinata, take Kitsune-chan and go play."

Kakashi let Naruto down from his shoulders and the two of them ran off hand-in-hand. The adults watched them, with smiles on their faces, "There perfect for each other, I just hope that they realize that after they're old enough." Sighed Kyuki, ever the hopeless romantic.

It should be noted that everything that Kakashi is about to tell the two women is exactly the incident that happened earlier that day before the two of them left, and then they would go to the Hokage.

**WITH NARUTO AND HINATA**

The two of them ran down a hall looking for a room the play in when they hit a wall of adult male.

Hinata gasped as she looked up. They had run into two almost identical men wearing matching black kimonos. Both of them had the Byakugan eyes, and were staring at the two of them, or more precisely at Naruto.

Naruto bounced to his feet, bowing repeatedly to both of the men. "I'm really sorry Hyuuga-sama, Hyuuga-sama! We-er-I didn't- weren't watching were I was going. I didn't mean to hit you-"

The two men were smiling down at the children fondly. One of them knelt down so that he was face to face with Naruto, ruffled his hair fondly. "Hey… What did we tell you to call us?"

Naruto looked up, he looked confused, then a realization hit him. "Hizashi-ojisan(2)! Hiashi-ojisan!" he jumped up into the arms of the man who was kneeling in front of him, while the other, now identified as Hiashi swooped down and picked of his daughter. The two of them carried the children back to the other adults, whom, now finished with "story time," were looking for the children.

Hiroshi, Kakashi, and Kyuki shut up the moment the two Hyuuga men walked into the room. "Looking for these?" said Hizashi setting down Naruto, who ran to Kakashi.

"Y-you found them?" stuttered Kyuki.

"We can't really say that, now can we brother?" said Hiashi, laughing a bit.

"No we can't…" replied Hizashi "We can say that they found us."

"What do you mean?" questioned Kakashi, picking up Naruto and holding the boy in his arms, feeling oddly protective of his kit (3).

"Well… They kind of ran into us on accident. We thought that it was funny how Kitsune-chan (4) tried to take the blame to keep Hinata-chan out of trouble. So what's with the party and why weren't WE invited"

Kyuki wanted to faint. Every time that she had seen these two men in public, they were either too snobbish to look at her or just didn't care to look around. Now, she was sitting in their home, and they were cracking the lamest jokes that she had ever heard, not to mention the fact that they'd entered the room carrying Kitsune-chan and Hinata-chan. They smiled and Hiashi actually kissed his wife.

Hiroshi leaned over to her husband's ear and gave him the abridged version of Kitsune-chan's life away from his "big brother." The man's face darkened, and thankfully Naruto was blissfully unaware of everything that was going on around him.

"Come. Kakashi-san, Kyuki-san, Hiroshi-chan, you need to come with me. We are going straight to the Hokage. Hizashi, will you stay with the little foxes? After all, you brought him here the first time you found him and know the kit better."

"I don't mind." Replied Hizashi. "I trust that I'll get the full story when you get back."

Hiashi only nodded, from the outside, you could tell that his mind was going a a million miles an hour.

"Okay then, come my little foxes, let's see what we can find to do." Hinata ran to her uncle and he picked her up, and held out an arm for Naruto, but he wouldn't let go of Kakashi.

"Come on, Kitsune-chan. You can let go now." Said Kakashi in the kindest voice he could muster, but Naruto buried his face in Kakashi's chest and shook his head. "Why not?" By this time Kakashi had dropped his arms from around Naruto, but Naruto still had his death grip on his torso.

"If you go…" he heard the mumbled reply. "You won't come back… I don't want to go back…"

'_So that's why he's always within and arm's distance from me…_' Kakashi pried his little brother off of him and forced him to look in his eye. "How about it I give you something that you know I'll come back for… you pick."

"Pants." Replied Naruto as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, causing the others in the room the chuckle or giggle respectively.

"How about something that cannot be replaced so easily… like this…" Kakashi closed his hidden eye, and untied his forehead protector and tied it on Naruto, careful to avoid the fox ears.

Naruto smiled and said "Yeah." And then slightly adjusted it to fit better, kind of cocking it to one side and off centering the leaf symbol on it, he then hugged Kakashi one last time before letting himself be let down to the ground, running over to Hizashi, only to be picked up again.

The four adults that were leaving left, moving quickly to the Hokage tower. The oncoming discussion would take years off of the Hokage's natural life, not to mention freak the hell out of several ANBU members guarding the Hokage's office. But this story is focused on Naruto and Hinata so the reader can imagine the explosive argument on their own.

By the time the four of them returned to the Hyuuga compound, it was very late, or very early in the morning.

Hizashi had worn the children or little foxes as they were now dubbed, out. The two of them were curled up on a futon together. Naruto had his tail curled protectively around Hinata, if they were older, they would look like lovers.

"Oh I just hate to wake them." Whispered Kyuki to Hiroshi and Kakashi. "They're just to cute."

"We're not going to wake them. We ARE going to partner train the two of them, you know that they must be in perfect harmony with each other at all times."

"That means… what?"  
"That means that Kitsune-chan and Kakashi-sensei will be rooming here from now on… or at least until Naruto is old enough to live on his own… Though if we have our way, he'll be married into this family well before he reaches that age." Surprisingly it wasn't Hiroshi who said this, but it was Hiashi and his brother Hizashi filling in the gaps, much like Fred and George from _Harry Potter_. The two of them gazed down at the two of them, in a way much like the way Kakashi usually looked at his fox, with love.

"But we will start their training as normal genin, not as academy students… And when they enter the academy they will be so far ahead of the others that the Hokage will be forced to make their partner train them with specialists." sighed Kakashi, rubbing his hidden eye, while the four of them were out, Kakashi had picked up a plain black headband to cover his eye.

"Not to mention it might give them the chance to fall in love…" sighed Hizashi.

"It that all you think about?" asked Kakashi.

"No…" replied Hizashi, smirking. "I think quite a lot about food."

"I asked for that, didn't I?"

"Yep."

"Kakashi-sensei…" started Kyuki, but she trailed off.

"Hmm…"

"What's wrong with that eye?"

"That's my secret." He replied simply. Kyuki actually pouted while the others laughed quietly, careful not to wake the two little foxes.

**THE NEXT MORNING**

The two little foxes slept very late, it was almost noon by the time they woke. But before they did it could only be described as a _Kodak Moment_. Hinata was now using Naruto's chest as a pillow or as a very large teddy bear, and Naruto had an arm around her mid back with his tail around the small of her back. In all honesty several members of the Hyuuga household actually snuck into the room and took several pictures of the two of them. The two of them would never be able to live it down, not for the rest of their lives.

Luckily, it was Hinata who woke first, if it had been Naruto she'd would've been woken by Naruto's routine. She sat up, removing his arm and tail, and watched him until her awoke, a few minutes later. Like the partners they would eventually be, together they went out of the room they were sleeping in.

"Where are we?" asked Naruto, he was looking around at the large hallways and elaborate decorations of the Hyuuga complex.

Hinata giggled in the way that only very little girls can do when they know more than an adult. "Kitsune-chan… We're at my house silly."

"Oh… Where's anichan?"

"He's eating breakfast." Said a voice from behind them, causing them both to jump.

It was Neji.

"Oh… Neji-nisan." Said Hinata, gasping.

"Good morning Hinata-sama, Kitsune-kun. How are the two of you this fine morning?"

"Good" was their reply, almost in unison.

"Good… Good… Now after you finish breakfast, father and Hiashi-sama want the two of you in the training room."

"O-okay Neji-nisan." Stammered Hinata, staring to lead Naruto away by the hand, but Naruto stopped.

"Hey Neji-kun?" asked Naruto, still holding Hinata's hand.

"Hmm?" came the haughty reply.

"What's breakfast?"

Neji did one of the biggest face drops in the history of anime, it shook the foundations of the complex and cracked the stone he was standing on. "You mean to tell me that you don't know what breakfast is?"

"Yeah… so… what is it?"

"It the first meal of the day, in the morning… usually eggs… bacon… bread…"

"Oh…" Naruto looked confused; his head was cocked to the side again. "Okay… Thanks Neji-kun." As he allowed Hinata to lead him away, Neji just stared after them, a huge sweat drop on his head.

As the two of them entered, the conversation in the dining room stopped. Everyone in the room was looking at them. Naruto surveyed the room, most of the faces that were watching him were kind and understanding, others were neutral, and still other, although they were the vast minority, stared at him with an intense hatred. He dropped his head, and allowed himself to be led by Hinata to Kakashi.

Sensing that something was wrong with his kit, Kakashi pulled him down into his lap. "Is there anything that you want for breakfast kitsun-chan?"

Naruto didn't say anything for a few minutes, then he said, very softly, "What is all this?"

It clicked in Kakashi's mind, '_of course he wouldn't know what this is… he's never had it before._' "Well… how about we try a little bit of everything."

They waited, but no one brought Naruto a plate. There were plenty of servants in the room at the time, and there was no reason that one of them hadn't even heard him.

Hiroshi demanded to know why he wasn't being served. None of the servants would even look her in the eye.

"Well… I'm waiting!" she shouted

Still no one answered her.

"If this continues I think that we can find if there are those more willing to serve the little one…"

Still no one moved.

"Fine… please gather your personal affects and leave. You're all fired."

The waiters left though some of them sent Naruto some very dirty looks.

Finally a different, kinder servant, the most trusted vassal of Hizashi brought Naruto a steaming plate, heaped with everything the cooks could come up with for breakfast. Before she left, she kissed the top of his head saying, "You don't deserve that…"

She brought him eggs, bacon, sausages, breads, butter, jam, fruits, and many other things. After trying all of it, Naruto found that he liked the bread, fruit, and bacon the best, although he said that he like the scrambled eggs too.

"Finished otouto-chan?" asked Kakashi.

"Yeah." Answered Naruto, after finishing a gulp of tea.

"Then let's go."

"Where?"

"We're going to get started training you for the academy."

"Ninja training?"

Kakashi nodded, smiling through that stupid mask. Before the older teen could get up Naruto was on his feet and began trying to drag him through the door. Finally, still laughing the two of them finally got outside, closely followed by Hiroshi, carrying Hinata, the two of them were also laughing at Naruto's enthusiasm.

Once in the training room, Hiashi and Hizashi wasted no time in evaluating the kit's speed, strength, and stamina. They ran him, and had him hit targets with his fists and feet. His speed, and stamina were off the charts, strength, was normal, but that could be fixed easily enough. They made the two children stand side by side, in size, they were very well matched, but both brothers knew that Naruto would reach six feet if not more, and Hinata would barely reach five, maybe 5'5". Naruto reached up and readjusted the Kakashi's hitai-ite (5), that he still hadn't returned to Kakashi.

There was no question…

The Byakugan would be a useless form in partner training so the basics that Hinata had learned would be almost useless. Though she would be taught the Byakugan techniques to defend herself without needing Naruto.

It was decided that Hinata would use Hua Quan (Flower Style Chuan) and Naruto would be trained in a modified version of the tiger Shaolin Quan, (Shaoling Kung Fu) that they decided to call the "Fox Quan."

"Naruto…" said Hiashi. "What do you know of taijustsu?"

Naruto looked down at the ground, and kicked a rock before mumbling something that they couldn't understand.

"Run that by us a again."

"Only what I see in my dreams." Said Naruto a little louder, just enough for the others to hear.

"What do you mean in your dreams?"

Naruto looked over to Kakashi, he was scared.

Kakashi took things into his hands. "No one is going to change how they feel about you Kitsune-chan."

Naruto looked from Kakashi to Hiashi, and back before replying. "Every now an' then, some lady's in m' dreams. She's real nice and pretty, an' she has a tail 'n ears like me. She shows me stuff 'bout fighting and other things I din' understand'."

The Hyuuga heads stared at each other then Naruto in surprise. The Kyuubi was communicating with him, and it seemed to be benign, not evil. But what could the Kyuubi teach only through demonstration and not practice. "So can you do the things she tells you?" Hizashi asked.

"Yeah…" he said then brightening up. "I can show you if you want."

"Maybe some other time… we're going to work on the basics… Once we're done with that then you can show us your skills." Said Hiashi looking at his brother.

"Okay."

And the training commenced.

It would push the two of them together better than the adults could have ever imagined. They were always together, they ate together, slept in the same bed, the only thing they didn't do together was bathe or use the restroom, but that was normal. On an interesting side note, every time Naruto came out of the bath or shower and blew dry his tail it turned into a giant fluff ball, which Hinata would spend hours playing with.

As for NinJutsu, GenJutsu, and TaiJutsu… they excelled. Naruto was not a specialist, he had the skills for everything he put his mind to, while Hinata was NinJutsu and TaiJutsu specialist. But that was not the focus of their training… Not by a long shot.

After determining that the both of them had the easiest time with the chakra manipulation, it took Hiashi and Hizashi two years after their training to figure this out, the focus turned to TaiJutsu, or physical skills. Although the two of them had to learn to use their bodies as weapons, for years the Hyuugas drilled the two of them in hand-to-hand combat and in projectiles. As for hand-held weapons, the both of them decided to forego the common use of weapons such as swords and staves, they would learn them but would not use them all the time, they just weren't useful. As for projectiles… they had a few options available to them at the time. They could specialize in one of the three types, they could use two of the three, or they could be odd and use all three. It should be noted to the reader that the three types of projectiles available to the two were kunai, shuriken, and throwing needles. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the two of them needed to specialize in the same one(s).

They were about ten years old when the Hyuugas would begin their training in projectiles, that in addition to their normal regiment.

In his mind, Naruto thought that only the kunai and shuriken would be of any use, but Hinata wanted to try the needles. After all Hinata could see a person's tenketsu and the needles would be more useful to her…

'_Oh what the hell…_' He thought when Hinata asked him to try out the needles. '_I'll give anything a try if Hinata wants to do it._' "Okay… Hinata-chan… we'll try them out and if you like them we'll use them…"

"Yay!" she shouted, smiling and hugging him fiercely. "Thank you Kisune-chan!"

After picking up a needle, Naruto felt incredibly foolish. '_Man… this is so stupid…_' He stared at the needle for a few moments, before positioning it between his index finger and his middle finger and throwing it at the picture that had been set up for their target practice.

It flew true and unwavering.

The others in the room stopped what he or she was doing and stared at the target. There the needle stood, vibrating a little bit, right at the point that would trigger instant death.

Even Naruto stared.

'_I didn't even try…_' he thought. "You know… these might be useful…"

Hinata smiled to herself, her target looked like a pincushion. But she knew that her Naruto-kun would like the needles, they were accurate, stealthy, and deadly; much more so than the other weapons that had been proposed to the two of them.

"Hinata-chan?" she heard him ask.

"Yes?" she replied, already knowing what he was going to say.

"Which do you like?"

She knew he was going to say that, and it still made her feel all warm inside when he did, he would only make a decision like this if she approved of it. "I like the needles…"

"Then that's what we'll use." And that was the end of it, although Naruto went through hell after choosing them. He had to learn all the points on the body that would trigger something other than pain. The points that would kill, simulate death, and the like, it was tedious but Naruto figured that if he washed out of being a ninja, he could become an acupuncturist.

As the years went by the two of them grew closer and closer. It was one big conspiracy between the Hyuugas and Kakashi to make them fall in love. It some cases Hiroshi had to intervene and make sure that they would eventually fall in love. There were some rules that Hiroshi set down after they were slightly older, they were not brother and sister, no… If they were to consider themselves anything, they were to be husband and wife or something…

Hinata could never call Naruto anything with a –nisan, -nichan, or –nikun suffix added to it, and the same went for Naruto, only the opposite sex. They were never to out of the other's company, they would sleep in the same bed and several other things; most kids would eventually rebel from their parents, but not these two. They took comfort in each other, and there was nothing that could come between them.

Birthdays were fun in the Hyuuga house.

Hinata got one every year, Naruto did to, but there was always that one day, when the two of them could be alone and do what ever they wanted. It was the day that their partnership had been solidified.

For them… Life was good.

By the time they were invited to the Academy for Genin, they were 13 years old, slightly older than the others finishing; not to mention that they entered in the last three weeks of the semester. They were in almost perfect synchronization with each other. By the end of their home based training the elders knew that if they were to be perfect, Kyuubi would either have to be set free or they would have to seal a demon inside of Hinata.

But that could be decided later.

Hiroshi, Hiashi, and Hizashi had dressed them in their uniform that they'd use until they got their chuunin jackets. Their entrance into the Academy, could only be described as intimidating. The two of the walked into the building, in perfect synchronization. Naruto wore a loose black shirt, with Hinata's symbol embroidered on the back with a dark orange leather jacket, also with Hinata symbol on the back but the kanji for fox on the upper right breast; as for pants, he wore some pants/shorts the reached his mid calf, the same color orange as his jacket with a needle case strapped at his thigh. Also, Naruto had taken to wearing a black leather headband in place of the hitai-ite that Kakashi had loaned him years ago.

Hinata, on the other hand, wore a skin tight black body suit that reached her mid thigh, the top was very much like a tank top, or comparison's sake, it would be comparable to a wet suit; on top of this suit, Hinata wore a light orange jacket, with the kanji for vixen on the upper right breast of it, comparable to Naruto's, and a pair of navy blue capris over the lower half. Her entire outfit was quite warm even though it did not look it. She also had a needle case strapped to her thigh, although it was on the opposite thigh compared to Naruto's. In addition to all that Hinata wore a thick orange leather belt with a fully loaded medi-kit strapped onto it.

Hinata isn't the shy creature that some may have thought she'd be, but not so. Everyone had thought that Naruto was loud, but Hinata is as loud, if not louder than Naruto, and she's quite out going.

In regards for each other, Naruto was fiercely protective of Hinata and she him. In all reality, Naruto never considered any other girls, although he really didn't think of Hinata as a girl, to him she was different. For one she wasn't all over Uchiha Sasuke, in fact, she barely even paid any attention to him at all.

For Hinata, there were no other guys, she already knew that she was completely in love with Naruto, she was a bit more mature than her partner both physically and emotionally, and she knew that he'd come along eventually, she'd wait for him. At least he wasn't drooling over that Sakura like most of the other boys.

As for physical changes in the both of them, Naruto was taller, tall for his age. His fox ears were kind of longer, and his tail was much longer, almost two and a half feet long. Hinata was half a head shorter than him; her hair was still jet black, it reached her shoulders with two longer pieces toward the front.

At the academy itself, for the three weeks that they were there, everything was the same. Naruto and Hinata did everything together, and no one in the school could do anything about it, although, they did try their best. Two of the older students nearly had the crap beat out of them by Hinata for tying up Naruto while he was coming out of the restroom. To this day, the two of them are still deathly afraid of women and live in a psychiatric ward of Kohona village hospital. At the merest hint of Hinata's name made them twitch uncontrollably.

Kyuki, sadly, was never there anymore, no one in the village had seen her in years. But that wasn't on their minds. Both, Hinata and Naruto, and their academy weeks were coming to an end. The both of them had taken their exam at the beginning of their term and had passed with flying colors on justu meant for Chuunin. It was quite funny to see Eboshi's face when they performed the exam easily.

While the others in the class were taking their exam, Hinata and Naruto were outside in a tree, Hinata perched in his lap, his tail curled around her, both of them asleep in the noon day sun.

* * *

(I could leave it off here but I won't... BE HAPPY)

* * *

HOURS LATER 

It was time for the exam results to be announced to the class, and Iruka couldn't find his favorite students. He hadn't seen the two of them in years, and the minute the two of them walked in her nearly had a heart attack.

_FLASHBACK_

_It was after lunch, and Iruka was lecturing his students about the importance of knowing one's limits. He heard talking outside the door. _'Odd…'_ he thought._ 'There aren't supposed to be any visitors today…_' _

_There were two voices. One distinctly male, the other female.'_

_"Is this the right room?" asked the male._

_"Room 9… That's what it says on the letter…" replied the female. _

_For a few minutes there was no more conversation. "All right students…" yelled Iruka over the din of the students. "I want you to write me an essay over everything that I've taught you this week. Emphasizing the importance of limits. Due at the end of class, I page long. Begin."_

_"Yup… This is the room." Came the male voice, now in the quite of the room all of the students heard him. "After you… Ladies first after all."_

_The female giggled as the door slid open._

_And in walked Kitsune Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata._

_And everything went black._

_"Oh shit!" There was Naruto's voice, sounding like it was coming through a thick fog. "Iruka-sensei are you okay?"_

_"Naruto is that you?"_

_"Yup he's okay." That wasn't Naruto's voice… it was female… It must be a female's._

_"Hinata?"_

_Naruto and Hinata looked at each other and laughed. The other students in the room were still staring at the two of them, eyes wide and jaws hitting their desks. _

_"Get up you." Said Naruto pulling Iruka by the arm. _

_Naruto had changed a lot. There was the little fox child that he had helped all those years ago, but there was something new in him. Iruka couldn't help but smiling and hugging the student… hard._

_The others in the room cringed as they heard his ribs and spine pop and crack. Luckily for Naruto, Hinata came to his rescue. "Iruka-sensei… would you please let my partner go… I kinda like him and don't have the time to find another."_

_Iruka let Naruto go, he slumped to the floor, Hinata could've sworn that she saw a ghost coming out of his mouth.'_

_"What are you two doing here?" Asked Iruka, picking up Naruto's limp body and placing it in a chair._

_"We're going to be your students!" said Hinata happily, she was looking Naruto over, her_ _Byakugan slightly activated. She reached over an pressed three points on his chest and once on the tip of his left ear. _

_Naruto shook himself, and looked up an Iruka. Iruka was staring at Hinata. "I guess you told him didn't you?" Asked Naruto._

_"Yup." Was the smug reply, Hinata looked very pleased with herself. _

"_May I sit?" She asked, Naruto nodded slightly spreading his arms. She sat on his lap, pulling his arms around her. "So… Now what?" _

_"I don't know…" said Naruto, "Ask the guy wearing the hitai-ite not me… He's our new sensei. He's probably not like your father or Hizashi-ojisan… Though I think that we'll be okay…"_

_Iruka stared at them… This wasn't what he was used to… these two were at a level of intimacy that could only be rivaled in married couples, he also noted that no on was doing the assignment anymore… that was okay, he wasn't going to grade them anyways…_

_"Well… if you're going o be in my class, I need to evaluate your skills."_

_Naruto and Hinata grinned at each other._

_The class remembers that day to this day…_

_The amount of NinJutsu and GenJutsu flying through the air would be imprinted on their memories forever. It actually changed the physical structure of the class room, apparently some NinJutsu and GenJutsu shouldn't be mixed… oh well… The younger students enjoy the new playground set when it rains…_

_END FLASHBACK_

"Where are those two…" steamed Kurenai, another Jounin teacher.

"Knowing them…" sighed Kakashi.

"I know where they are…" said the Hokage, walking into the room. "There outside, apparently they decided to take a nap in the tree outside in the courtyard."

"Who wants to go get them?"

The group of Jounin, Chuunin, teachers and one Hokage all looked slightly adverse to the idea. A few years back, one of the servants of the Hyuuga house had tried to wake the two of them while they were perched in the tree in the courtyard. Hinata had been the one that had reacted that time. The servant still hasn't regained total use of his right arm; it had looked like a pin cushion after Hinata had stopped throwing needles, and no one wanted a repeat of that.

"It might be better if we all went to retrieve them…" sighed Kakashi, rubbing his eye. "That way if one of them starts firing, the others can help, stem the flow of needles."

The others nodded in agreement, there was always safety in numbers; and proceeded into the courtyard. There the two of them were, sitting in the stupid tree, asleep, Hinata in Naruto's lap, his arms around her waist, holding her securely; she had her head snuggled into his chest, his was resting slightly against hers. His tail was hanging off of the branch swaying in the slight breeze.

"So…" whispered Iruka, "How do we wake them?"

"Okay everybody…" said the Hokage, and they heeded his request. "Now Kakashi-san… take one of your kunai and launch it at them, preferably at Hinata."

"What are you trying o do old man?" asked a Chuunin, looking from Kakashi to the old man. "Do you want to kill them?"

The vein in the Hokage's forehead pulsed at the words "old man," but he just said, with a forced smile. "Just wait and see… Kitsune-san will not allow anything to happen to Hinata-chan."

The Chuunin took a step back, slightly afraid of the Hokage. As Kakashi moved to the forefront of the group and readied threw the kunai.

Everyone watched as the blade flew straight at Hinata.

It was a few inches from Hinata's face, when Naruto's hand came up and put a finger into the hold at the end of the handle, stopping the blade.

The group was shocked…

Naruto was still snoring…

Loudly…

Naruto opened one eye and glared at his adoptive big brother, he growled deep in the back of his throat; but because he hadn't hit the fullness of puberty it sounded more like the purr of a kitten.

The was still spinning the Kunai on his finger. He threw it back… since he was more specialized in his needles the kunai didn't fly as fast as he hoped, but it still flew straight at The Hokage, who just waved it a side with a simple gust of Chakra.

They were all staring at them.

'_Damn…_' thought Naruto scratching his fox ear. '_There goes that nap…_'

"Come on Hinata-chan…" sighed Naruto, gently shaking the girl in his lap.

She moaned and tried to snuggle deeper into his chest.

"Hinata-chan…" said Naruto, a bit louder, still shaking her, "There are some very annoying people who want us for some un-Godly reason."

She mumbled something that the people on the ground couldn't hear, but it caused Naruto to laugh hard enough to almost make him fall out of the tree.

"Do you know what she said?" Iruka asked Kakashi.

"Most likely it had to do with our sexual preferences, personal appearance and probably implied certain preferences that are not normally mentioned in polite society. Though I will admit that I've heard worse from her father when he was drunk once…" replied Kakashi calmly, ignoring the look in Iruka's face.

There was that rumbling noise, evidently it wasn't Naruto snoring. Hinata answered their unspoken question for them. "You're always hungry aren't you?"

"Yup." Was the reply with a toothy grin.

It was his stomach…

"What say we get something to eat and come back?" said Hinata standing up on the branch, and pulling Naruto o his feet.

But before he could reply, the Hokage cut in.

"If you leave, I'll have to fail you out of the academy."

"What say we stay here and graduate first then we go find something to eat?"

"Sounds good."

Those two were in their own little world. The both of them jumped down from the tree, Naruto doing some hand seals discreetly.

"That was easier than the old man led us out to believe…" said one of the Chuunin. Some of the people had followed the Hokage, Kakashi, and Iruka and had no connection to either Naruto or Hinata, they were in for a nasty surprise. The seals that Naruto had been doin had been seen by Kakashi and he signaled the fourth and Iruka to stay behind a bit. "I'll bet the Naruto can't even do basic NinJutsu!" carried on the Chuunin while the other laughed.

That sealed their fate.

Now Hinata was involved. These morons had insulted her partner, not smart.

"Seven Levels of Hell no Jutsu!" the two of them shouted in unison. The laughing ninja collapsed in a huge heap and began to scream. In their minds they were in the middle of the deepest level of hell. It was something that the two of them had thought up on day when Hinata was sick and Naruto was reading to her, it had taken them three days to get I right and they tested it on one very annoying shopkeeper that always overcharged Naruto, even if Hiashi, Hizashi, Hiroshi, AND Hinata were with him. The adult members of the Hyuuga still smirk at the memory.

After performing the GenJutsu, Hinata grabbed his hand and half led half drug him back into the school, taking careful precaution to step on the pile of ninja. Kakashi, the Hokage, and Iruka followed, also walking on the pile of students, the fourth emptied his pipe while standing on the top of the heap, relit the pipe and tucked the lit match in the pants of a Chuunin, only then did he continue on his way back into the school.

Index:

1 – Little Brother

2 – Uncle

3 - Baby fox

4 – Remember the importance of this name?

5 – Forehead Protector

Author Notes:

Well here's the next chapter, It's really long for me, and this update didn't take as long as I thought that it would. I really hope that you liked it.

Cheers

Aengus.


	3. Chapter 3

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.

Correction from the last chapter: I called the current Hokage the fourth, I meant to say the Third, sorry.

I'm quite surprised at the response that this had gotten, all but one of the reviews has been positive, and I must say that you anime readers are much nicer than the Harry Potter readers. Well… I had to day that… Thanks. NEWS FLASH: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CUTENESS THEN PLEASE DON'T REVIEW AT ALL, I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. I'M WRITING THIS FOR MYSELF AND THOSE WHO LIKE THIS.

"Shut up and sit down you lot!" shouted Kurenai, her ego was still smarting from the GenJutsu beat down she had received from Naruto and Hinata; but in no way was she going to piss either one of those two of ever again.

Naruto and Hinata were at the back of the class, and even though there were enough chairs for everyone, Hinata was perched in Naruto's lap, again...

But who wanted to tell them any different.

The other students took their seats in the class room, looking slightly frustrated. One named Sakura was complaining that she didn't get to set next to another named Sasuke, this Sakura girl was in the middle of a cat fight with some girl named Ino. Only the intervention of Iruka had prevented the shedding of blood. Naruto and Hinata were watching the whole fight giggling softly… sharing a bag of popcorn that the Hokage had handed them, the Third had decided to be in the room during the announcement of the teams; and had thought that the entire fight was as amusing as the old _Icha Icha Paradise_ movies that Jiraiya had slipped him a few years ago.

Both Naruto and Hinata had grown to know the names of all the students in their class and gotten to know most of them personally. There really wasn't anyone, their age, that they had formed a friendship with, one of those being a boy named Shikamaru, a lazy genius. Shikamaru knew that they were different, figured out what they were, and said, very eloquently "How troublesome."

Iruka was now standing at the front of the class, behind several rows of hitai-ite, but four of them were set aside from the others, and were black instead of blue; but none of the other students were worried about that, they just wanted one of the hitai-ite, no matter what color it was. Even Sasuke was anxious about getting his hitai-ite, but the cold boy would never let anyone know that.

Iruka was rambling on and on about their status in the village, the importance of teamwork, and how their training was never finished. Naruto and Sarutobi (the Third) were feigning falling asleep while Hinata was having a very hard time trying to keep from laughing. We readers know that no one in their right mind is paying attention to Iruka's speech.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, although more likely minutes, Iruka started announcing the teams, until there were only six names that hadn't been called.

"Here's were things get a bit weird." Said Iruka, smiling a bit. "Hokage-sama, would you like to announce the next two teams?"

Sarutobi smiled and nodded, relighting his pipe, the old man walked to the front of the classroom, nodding at all the students who bowed as he passed. Upon reaching the front, he held his hands out wide, and smiled. "Now would the six of you who haven't been called please come up here."

Shino (A quiet boy who used bugs in his ninja skills), Kiba and Akamaru (the latter being a dog used by the former), Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata all walked up to the front. Naruto and Hinata stood a bit to the side from the others.

The Hokage walked over to them and placed his hands on the shoulders of Shino and Sasuke, saying. "These four (cue Akamaru grow)… er… five, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru, Sakura, and Sasuke will be part of one team under the combined efforts of Kurenai and Eboshi." He took his hands off of the two of them and handed the four remaining blue hitai-ite to them. "Now for these two over here…" The third gestured to Naruto and Hinata, who bowed sarcastically. "These two, as a result of the worst hatred that I have ever seen, are to be the only ninja from out village to be partner trained since Yondaime was partnered with his soon to be wife. And now we will reintroduce the partner training."

The others in the room were staring at Naruto and Hinata, the two of them just bowed, in unison, to the Hokage. The Hokage nodded and handed them each one of the black hitai-ites, the hitai-ites were very different from the other hitai-ite that had been handed out to the other students. These didn't have the symbol of the leaf on them, but Hinata's symbol… and so did the other two.

"Now… These two will be under the tutelage of Kakashi, and two others who, trained in Hidden Sand village, who wish to remain anonymous." Continued the Hokage, ignoring the surprise of the others. "They will not bare the mark of the village, as is the custom of partner training, they will bare a mark that is incredibly important to them both… In this case, Hinata-chan's own symbol, given to her by her family, this will serve as the symbol of their partnership."

The two of them took their hitai-ite from the elder Hokage, the two of them were just oozing sarcasm. Naruto moved over to Hinata, smirking, the two of them had rehearsed this for hours the pervious night. He kissed her forehead, and then tied the hitai-ite onto her head, slightly skewing it to one side.

Hinata has smirking a evil smirk as she began her part of their 'ritual.' She gestured for him to kneel before her, he complied by sliding down onto both knees, he head at the level of her bellybutton.

She put her finger on the side of her chin, evidently thinking hard. "You know…" said Hinata her eyes far away. "I kinda like you there…" The observers sweat dropped at these words.

Neji put his head in his hands, he was on the verge of tears.

The Hokage didn't know weather to laugh or sweat drop… so instead he face planted… who knew that he wore pink boxers with read hearts on them?

Giggling she removed Naruto's black head band, she then kissed his forehead and tied the hitai-ite on, very careful to avoid his fox ears. She held out her hand and helped him to his feet.

"Well… um…" stammered the Hokage, straightening his long robe and dusting off his hat. "Yes… well… thank you… Now you two will begin you journey to your new masters in the morning. Kakashi will be going with you."

Naruto and Hinata bowed again, and the two of them disappeared out a window.

"Hey where are you two going?" shouted Kurenai after them.

"FOOD!" was Naruto's enthusiastic reply.

* * *

The two of them were sitting at a shish kabob stand, feasting on grilled squid and shrimp. They were talking and laughing amiably, the other people and ninja were staring at them, or more precisely at their hitai-ite. After all, the two of them didn't look like Kohona ninja, they didn't look like any ninja they had ever seen, but no one dared to bother them in fear of starting a war with one of the hidden villages.

Those who did recognize them looked the other way, a ninja with the hitai-ite could press charges against a civilian if the ninja was being harassed in any way… The villagers had tried to prevent Naruto from reaching this age, but thanks to the Hyuugas, they had failed.

Naruto took a swig of the tea that he had been served, and sat back on his bar stool and sighed.

Hinata swallowed and said "Finished?"

"Yup." He scratched one of his fox ears, Hinata forced down her blush, she thought that that was one of the cutest things that he did… next to his routine in the mornings… which she always got to see thanks to her sleeping on top of him most of the time.

"What now?"

"Either we finish our nap or we go pack. If we go pack, Hiashi and/or Hizashi will catch us and then we'll have to train." Hinata shuddered as she and Naruto paid for their food. Thinking that she might be cold, after all it was near the end of July and summer was due to end within a few months; Naruto drew and arm around her waist and pulled her close to him… Hinata was busy creating a new shade of blush that would put any _Weasley_ to shame.

'_What on Earth is he doing?_' Hinata wondered in her mind, then her instincts took over, and she laid her head slightly on his shoulder. '_What the hell… I can't wait for him figure it out… then maybe Kakashi will be able to teach him _something_ that he knows all to well…_'

The two of them walked off to find a nice tree to continue their nap.

THE NEXT MORNING

Naruto, Hinata and Kakashi were at the Hokage's tower in Sarutobi's office. The Hokage was giving them the final details of their journey and were they were to meet the masters. It would be a perilous journey to the village of the hidden forest, where an old friend of his would show them the rest of the way.

There were few people that went to see the three of them off. Only three in fact, Hiroshi, Hiashi, and Hizashi, and they weren't exactly ecstatic about the two of them leaving with a known pervert.

"You'll be careful, won't you?" asked Hiroshi, hugging her daughter. Naruto was being given a quick pep talk from the two male heads of the Hyuuga house.

"Remember everything that we taught you, eh Kitsune-chan?" said Hizashi, his had was ruffling the boy hair fondly. Naruto had become a foster son for the Hyuugas, just like Neji had been invited into the main branch along with his father. Effectively Naruto was the equivalent of Neji before he was placed into the main branch of the family. "Hinata-chan is important to you, right?"

'_Where the hell did that come from?_' Thought Naruto, before saying. "Of course she is."

"Then you'll treat her as such?" asked Hiashi.

"Of course…"

"Like the most precious thing in the world?" it was Hizashi this time.

"Yes…"

"Like she means everything to you?"

"You'll protect her?"

"You'll be there for her?"

"You'll-"

Hiroshi cut them off, Naruto's eyes were as wide as saucers, and he had a huge sweat drop on his head. "That's enough you two!" she shouted. "They have to go!"

Naruto ran to get a final hug from his foster mother. "We'll see you in a few years okasa-san!" He grabbed Hinata's hand and led her over to Kakashi. The three adults waved to them, Hiroshi dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief and crying softly.

Turning away, Kakashi, Hinata, and Naruto started down the path away from the village. The only people to see them go over the hill were the ANBU officers on the guard duty, everyone else in the village just noticed that village was quieter than normal.

ON THE ROAD

Naruto and Hinata were walking slightly behind Kakashi, who, being the pervert that he is, had his nose buried in a copy of _Icha Icha Paradise._ Naruto as his adoptive little brother knew that Kakashi loved the books by Jiraiya and was even part of a club that included the Third Hokage, Eboshi, Hyuuga Hizashi, and several other high ranking officials; oddly enough, Naruto had no problem with it, as long as Kakashi and Jiraiya swore never to peek on Hinata. And thankfully, they never did.

"Kitsune-chan…" said Hinata, lacing her fingers with his.

"Hmm?" said Naruto, yawning.

She smiled, Naruto was always tried before noon. "Are you nervous about meeting our new masters?"

Naruto didn't answer right away, she looked at him, his eyes had a far away look. "I don't know what to think… If aniki-chan knows them then I guess I'm okay with it. Though I will admit that I hope that he's nothing like Jiraiya-sama, that would be just plain annoying."

Hinata giggled brightly, there was her Naruto again, he could always make her laugh. "I agree, if he's anything like Jiraiya-sama, we'll have a problem… though I he's like Kakashi-san, I don't think there'll be too much trouble…"

Kakashi was listening to their entire conversation, he had a fire growing in his visible eye.

"I agree…" sighed Naruto, he was grinning broadly, he could sense his brother's anger. "Though I will admit, aniki-chan knows how not to be caught when he's eing his perverted self."

By this time Kakashi's face was red with embarrassment and Naruto and Hinata were cracking up. '_That's no way to treat your big brother…_'

It was growing dark fast, which was odd… they'd only been traveling a few hours and they had started out a little after lunch. There was a definite killing intent in the air… Everyone could feel it; it was immense and over powerful.

Kakashi had slowed down his walking and even put his book away. Naruto had put an arm around Hinata's shoulder and held her close to him.

"I think that we should stop for the day…" said Kakashi, there was a odd tone to his voice. "It might be better for us if we had a fire in this dark." The three of them walked to a small clump of tree a bit off the road, and there they set up camp. After a few minutes Kakashi had a fire roaring and there were three small fish roasting over it. Hinata was sitting against a tree with Naruto next to her she was dozing in the dark, using his chest as a pillow and had pulled his arm around her.

Kakashi was standing watch, the killing intent was so strong in the air, and it scared him… and yet it was so familiar to him. It couldn't be him…

Naruto and Hinata were asleep… it was like old times, in the Hyuuga house, they four adults took turns to wake the "little foxes" as they are continued to be called; there was not a single day that the two of them were curled up together on the bed. Kakashi watched them, it was growing light and there had been no attack during the night; and yet the killing intent was still there but it wasn't as intense as it had been, but was still there.

"Get up you two." Sighed Kakashi, he really didn't want to get they up at all, but they needed to make good time on the road today. It was a common myth that it took weeks to get anywhere, in fact a person could go from Kohona to Sand in just under three days; it was Kakashi's intent to make it to Sand today.

The two of them groaned and Naruto rolled over, effectively pulling Hinata fully onto his chest, still asleep. It was a good thing that Hinata was still asleep, if she was awake, her blush would've broken records.

"You made me do this." Sighed Kakashi again, picking up the bucket of water he had used to put out the fire, and poured it on the two of them, soaking them instantly, and waking them instantly.

"What the hell was that for you moron!" it was Hinata who had started yelling, not Naruto. Naruto was still lying the ground, wondering what had happened and why he was wet.

"You didn't get up." Replied Kakashi to Hinata calmly. He was surprised that it was Hinata that had reacted and not Naruto. Hinata was feisty and fiery, and so was Naruto, but Hinata was much more so… "It's time to go, we need to reach the Sand before we stop tonight."

Hinata gaped at him. "B-but that's impossible."

Naruto was still half-asleep on the ground.

"No it's not." Said Kakashi, packing up the few things that he had removed from his pack during the night. "We can be there by night fall if we just keep a steady pace, and try to avoid stopping."

Naruto had picked himself off the ground and dusted off his jacket, but still hadn't heard a thing that was being said.

Hinata realized that the day was going to be a living hell, gave up and went over to Naruto and buried her head in his chest, totally exasperated. Naruto was confused but hugged Hinata back, looking at his big brother. Kakashi just smiled at him, shaking his head.

It wasn't too long before Hinata released Naruto looking much better, and much happier, after Naruto attempter to find out what had been going on… and failing, the three of them set off at an alarmingly fast rate.

They were running almost flat out. But still the killing intent in the air was so potent and they couldn't get away from it, in fact it seemed to only be growing stronger and stronger. To Kakashi, this feeling and Chakra signature was so familiar and yet he couldn't place it in his memory.

They had been running for hours, through towns and villages without stopping. Luckily for Naruto, he had extreme stamina, and Kakashi has the stamina of a Jounin; unluckily for Hinata, she did not. After a couple hours her pace slowed to a point that they would either have to stop or give her a soldier pill; and then Naruto had one of those special things called an idea, after they had stopped for a few minutes to allow for a small bite of dried fish and some water, Naruto hoisted Hinata onto his back, and he and Kakashi continued running, and every few hours they would switch who was carrying Hinata.

They had just entered the Sand Country, the sand made it harder for them to run and they were forced to slow to a simple walk.

The killing intent was stronger now…

Now even Hinata could feel it.

It was most assuredly evil in nature.

(cue '_Jaws_' them song)

And it was coming closer much too fast for it to be normal.

The darkness had returned with a vengeance, it was much darker than it should have been for four in the after noon. The three of them had been running for at least six hours, including all the time that was required to stop for various reasons.

"Stop running little ones…" said a voice, sounding way to much like a snake. "It will be much better if you stop running and give me the demon."

NOW Kakashi recognized the voice… well, his former teacher the fourth had told him about this man. Then there was the current Hokage, the Third, the man who had been his teacher.

It was Orochimaru, Satan's serpent.

This really couldn't get much worse.

One of the _Legendary Three_ was hunting them, and Kakashi knew that there was no way to outrun him or defeat him. Orochimaru hadn't been seen for quite some time and there was no telling how strong he had become.

"Anki-chan…" said Naruto, he was holding Hinata close to his chest, protecting her with his arms. "What's going on? Who is that?"

Kakashi didn't look at Naruto, he had removed his hitai-ite from his eye, revealing his Sharingan eye. Naruto wasn't surprised, once a few years ago Kakashi had told him about his eye and the story about it.

"Don't bother Kakashi-chan…" came the voice, it was much closer than before, just outside their line of sight. "I'm not here to fight you… Just to get Kyuubi no Kitsune from the boy."

"Run." Kakashi ordered Naruto. "Run fast. Run hard. Don't stop until you reach sensei's house."

"There will be no need…" The voice now had a body shape, but only an outline. The Chakra presence had increased ten fold. The outline was walking toward them, growing clearer and clearer with every step. "He will be dead before he gets away from me."

Now Orochimaru was in clear view. His flesh was cold and white with long black hair. His eyes were as cold as death, matched only by the killing intent in the air. I a snake had been transformed into a human, this man would be that snake, he even flicked out his tongue as if to taste the air.

Hinata was shaking, and unable of speech, she had gone deathly pale, her white eyes were wide and her lips were almost the same color of her skin. Naruto had pushed her behind him, protecting her with his entire body.

"Come now boy…" hissed Orochimaru, beckoning to Naruto with one hand. "Come now and die."

"No!" shouted Hinata, grabbing Naruto about the chest, putting her head on his shoulder.

"Then you will all die." Orochimaru's insanely short fuse was burnt out, and he wanted to get this over with. He disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

There was no time for Kakashi to react when Satan's Snake reappeared behind Hinata and struck with a sword that had been hidden from their sight.

The blade came whizzing through the air, down right onto Hinata's back. It had enough force to split her torso in half and to kill Naruto.

It never struck.

Orochimaru was forced flying back.

Naruto had caught the sword right before it had cut into Hinata. He was glowing with a odd red glow, his tail was standing on end. His eyes had gone into slits, resembling that of Kyuubi's eyes when she attacked the village.

Kakashi had grabbed Hinata and pulled her off to the side, away from the battle. Sure he wanted to fight Orochimaru, but he knew now that Kyuubi had awakened, he would only be in the way.

Naruto looked at the sword he was holding by the blade. "**_Interesting weapon, snake._**" Said Naruto, in a deep voice that was not his own. He flipped the sword so that he was holding it by the hilt. "**_I will make sure that it will end your life._**" He threw the sword back at its owner, it whirled through the air, seemingly invisible, until it struck Orochimaru in the shoulder and buried itself to about half its length.

The snake's eyes had gone wide, no one since he had left the leaf village had been able to wound him, and here was the boy…

This boy could throw his own sword through his shoulder.

"Gaah…" gasped the snake as he pulled the blade his shoulder. He held the blade from its hilt, his own blood spurting onto himself. He was mad. This boy shouldn't be able to touch him, let alone hurt him. "You will die Kyuubi no Kitsune… Then I will capture your power."

"**_I doubt that…_**" replied Naruto, cleaning under one of his finger nails with his teeth.

"I don't…" replied Orochimaru. "And once you're dead I will kill your little girlfriend over there…"

Naruto froze...

The Chakra that was flowing around him increased a hundred fold.

"**_You will not touch the kit's chosen…_**" the voice had changed again, now it was a combination of four voices, none of which that created a chord of any kind.

Orochimaru stepped back from the boy.

Naruto cracked his fingers, and his finger nails grew into long black claws. There was an electrical charge running through the air around him, along with the red Chakra flowing around him. His hair became even spikier than it already was, and grew longer, about a couple of inches. The Chakra around him had been flailing about without any shape, then it became the kitsune.

The Kyuubi had manifested itself in pure Chakra, complete with the nine tails.

This was one pissed fox.

Orochimaru smirked. "You think that you can stop me?" he asked

"**_I will kill you…_**" was the reply.

And the battle began.

Orochimaru was sealing as Naruto exploded from his position with a vengeance, the snake didn't even have time to finish his jutsu, and was forced to block Naruto's strike before jumping way from him.

Kakashi and Hinata were staring at the duel, dumbfounded. Hinata couldn't believe that her Naruto could have this much power in him, Kakashi and the other hand knew about Kyuubi no Kitsune and knew that the seal had been modified by the demon so that she and Naruto could share a more symbiotic relationship; but this was ridiculous.

Even with the pure power that the Kyuubi was putting out through Naruto, Orochimaru was getting some very good cuts on Naruto. The snake had gotten far enough away to summon a set of gloves with blades coming from the knuckles, a sword was going to be useless against the rage of the Kyuubi, so it was more intelligent to fight on a equal basis. The two of them exchanged blows for what seemed like hours, Naruto was slowing down, the Chakra he was burning was beginning to take affect on his performance, though Orochimaru was in a way worse condition than he was. It was going to come down to one final all out attack…

Or so it seemed…

Using a shadow clone Orochimaru got a hold of Naruto from behind, and pressed the blades against his neck. The snake grinned, showing off very sharp looking teeth. "Its time to die little fox…"

Orocimaru raked his claws across Naruto's chest, leaving three very deep gashes, breaking ribs, cutting organs, and hitting everything in between. Letting his body drop, Orochimaru hissed, almost laughing, "Time to deal with the little girl."

Orochimaru walked over to the other two, pulling his sword out of the ground where he had thrown it in their direction. He licked the blood off of the sword with his disgustingly long tongue. "Now it is your time to die… You should've run while you can."

Hinata was crouching behind Kakashi, shivering with fear. She hadn't seen the end of the battle, she had only heard the splash of blood that had come from Naruto's chest.

Orochimaru raised the sword high above his head, there was still blood running off of it and onto his arm.

His face was almost completely red from his and Naruto's blood, it just mad him look even more insane that he already was, blood dripping into his eyes, coating them red.

"Die."

The sword came rushing down.

Hinata screamed.

She screamed for all the heavens, Earth, hells, and everything else in between. She screamed for her parents, screamed for help, screamed for Kakashi to do something…

But most of all she screamed for Naruto…

"**_I told you that you would not touch the kit's chosen…_**" it was the voice of the Kyuubi. Kakashi and Hinata were hit by a wave of blood, soaking them instantly. "**_Now it is time for you to die… Go to hell Snake._**"

"Hinata-chan look up…" it was Kakashi's very small, very scared voice.

The two of them were staring at the scene in front of them…

Orochimaru's sword was embedded in the ground a few feet behind the two of them, but that wasn't their focus. There was Orochimaru, he looked like he had been mauled in less than half a second. Naruto was in between the two of them, also bleeding, although not as bad as Orochimaru, the flaming shape of the fox around Naruto was holding Orochimaru still. Naruto's hand was positioned on his torso, the flames of Chakra were burning brightly there.

Naruto pressed down on with his fingers. A crunching sound echoed across the desert, Orochimaru screamed in pain.

"**_Enjoy hell… Hoshi-no-tama…_**" A huge ball of Chakra formed in Orochimaru's chest as the snake screamed.

The screaming subsided as the husk that was once Orochimaru fell backwards, sucked dry of life and Chakra.

There was a huge ball of pure energy had grown from a baseball size that had been in his hand when he started, it was now, at least two feet in diameter. "**_I haven't done that since… Well my little kit, we shall live to fight another day… Though…_**" he gestured to the husk that had been Orochimaru, it was still leaking blood all over the sand. "**_He will never bother any of us again…_**" Naruto looked as the Hoshi-no-tama in his hand and closed his eyes. Slowly the orb receded into his hand, as did the flaming red Chakra. There was a hissing sound as a red mist floated up from his body.

Hinata was on her feet the instant that Orochimaru had been… sucked dry. Good thing too, she caught Naruto before his head hit the ground.

Even with the new Chakra flowing through his system, the healing powers of the Kyuubi were just not enough to completely heal Naruto's numerous wounds. Kakashi took his time getting up off the ground, he was still shocked.

"Kakashi-san!" yelled Hinata, she was trying to bandage Naruto's numerous wounds, but the blood was soaking the bandages like water. "Help me! I can't stop be the bleeding!"

Kakashi ran over to Hinata and the prone body of Naruto, forming seals quickly. In a puff of smoke, bandages came out of the air wrapping themselves around Naruto's chest, arms, and head. "That will hold him 'till we get to the Sand… I must send that body back to the Leaf… gimmie a minute and we'll continue on…"

Kakashi was shaking as he walked over to the body of Orochimaru and placed a seal over his face, to prevent the accidental decomposition of the body during its transport. Forming two seals, the body was enveloped in smoke and disappeared.

"Come Hinata-chan…" sighed Kakashi, lifting Naruto onto his back… "We must hurry… I don't know how long the bandages will hold."

The two of them ran in spit of the sand making it very hard to keep the pace… the darkness was clearing and the sun was coming through the unnatural darkness. It only took them a couple of minutes to reach the Sand. There was a trail of blood following the two of them as they ran.

_IN NARUTO'S MIND_

_Naruto was lying on his back, he couldn't move or do anything. He was just lying there in the middle of a white room with no walls or ceiling. There was nothing, nada, zilch. There wasn't even a cage with the seal on it that would normally hold the spirit of the Kyuubi. He was alone in utter nothingness._

_Or so he thought._

_He could hear the padding of a four-legged creature and the feet of a person. Soon a beautiful woman with fox-ears and a fox tail, she was smiling down at him kindly, next to her was a beautiful golden fox with a huge bushy tail with a white tip. _

_"Go support his head, I have work to do…" the woman said in a tired voice, then kneeling down next to Naruto, she ran a hand through his hair, still smiling. "I'll be right back my little kit."_

_The gold fox had wormed it's way under his head, supporting him with the combined mass of his body and tail. Naruto was trying to voice something, but couldn't get it past his throat. _

_"The master calls me Kyu little kit." Said the fox in a deep, old and wise voice._

_It wasn't long before he heard the woman come back, this time he was able to open his eyes and look at her. She was different from the last time he had seen her, this time she was wearing a simple, yet elegant, kimono, her ears and tail were golden yellow, her eyes were kind. She didn't have anything with her, so what did she have to go get?_

_"My little kit…" she cooed, she ran her fingers through his hair and over his cheeks, unbeknownst to him, as she touched his cheeks she left three black 'whisker-like' marks on his cheeks. "I'm so sorry little one."_

_"'s okay…" Naruto wheezed out. "Who are you… anyways?"_

_Kyu looked up at the woman, his eyes were concerned._

_The woman sighed deeply. "I guess it is time someone told you the truth… I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The strongest of all the fox spirits."_

_"You were the… one who attacked… the village?"_

_"Yes… and no." she sighed again. "I suppose you deserve the whole story, after all you are the end result. I knew your parents… Very well in fact, though they never met my mate, Inari, the fox god. Inari disappeared well before I went to live in the forest outside the village. I was quite attached to your mother while one of my two sons, out of my three kits, Maki, was attached to your father. Maki was quite like your father, calm, intelligent, and had a mischievous streak a mile wide. My daughter, she was never named as a fox, but as a human she was called Isis…"_

_"You said you had two sons…" rasped Naruto_

_"My last son, the youngest of the three… he was the ultimate prankster. He loved transforming himself into a handsome young man and 'stealing' the hearts of several young ladies then disappearing… It was rather amusing to see him come back with his clothes all torn up and several hickies all over his neck and face."_

_"His name?"_

_"His name was Naruto… Your father named you after him… During a hunt, Isis and Naruto were murdered by two radicals from the leaf who didn't think that we should be allowed to live, much less be friends of the Hokage. When I returned with my kill… I found my son and daughter's bodies mutilated, their blood painted the trees surrounding the clearing where our den was." Kyuubi swallowed and shuddered. "I-I flew into a rage… Nothing could stem my anger, my entire demon essence poured out of me. I wanted revenge… I wanted them to pay for what they did to my children…"_

_"M-Maki?"_

_"He was with your father, after he reached his 100th birthday, he chose to become your father's familiar…"_

_"Oh…"_

_"I attacked Kohona… There was no one who could stand in my way… I killed all those who dared to stand in my way. I killed several ninja and innocents… I'm not proud of it, but I did it. I wandered near the home where your father and mother lived… I hate to say this… but I was going to kill them… B-But as I got to the room where I could sense your father's presence…" Her voice broke, but she pressed on. "I saw your mother… it was too early for her to be in labor… two months too early… Her chakra was almost burnt out… She was dying and there was nothing that your father could do about it… he looked at me, he was broken… You could see it in his eyes. My rage died right then and there… I waited for you… I wanted to be your foster mother… I wanted to care for you… You were born, I knew as soon as I saw you that you weren't going to survive."_

_Naruto didn't say anything, he had tears running down his cheeks._

_"Your father looked at me… (sob) He didn't have to ask, I knew what he wanted… He asked if there was anything I could do… I looked at him and the story was laid bare before him though the connection that we shared, I didn't want to vocalize, Maki was still in the room. I wanted to do something that would allow you to live in the village and I knew that I would be hated and could never return again. I told myself that I would be your mother if it killed me… Your father prepared the jutsu… set up the candles and got the paint for the tattoo that would be the seal on your stomach. Your mother was still hanging on, but just barely… As the god of death came forth, we made a deal… I would sacrifice my physical body, and become pure Chakra in your body until you die, your mother would give up the last of her life, and your father… your father would end up exhausting his Chakra channeling the god of death in your world and myself into the you…"_

_"He's alive?"_

_"Yes… Maki took him away…"_

_"But how?… why don't the villagers know?"_

_"The third was told to manipulate the story so that no one would go looking for your father." Kyuubi's voice was stronger, her tears were subsiding. "As for you, my little kit, your were taken care of by the Hokage's family until you were two… The Hokage's daughter-in-law insisted that you be placed in the orphanage, and it was so… I knew that the villagers would hate you… I had to do fuse with you, or we would've died… I didn't realize that you would become Kitsune, that the villagers would hate you, even try to kill you…"_

_"'s alright…" he rasped "My ch-chosen?"_

_The woman smiled a bit, her canines were slightly elongated just like his. "I know your thoughts and emotions my little kit… I know how you feel for your partner, and I know that you're too damn scared to tell her because you think that she doesn't feel the same way toward you…"_

_He wasn't in as much pain as before, but it still hurt and he couldn't do anything, he was stranded on the ground. He smiled a bit, "Tell me more about your children." His voice was stronger, but was still raspy._

_Kyuubi looked pensive for a moment, "Maki… the intelligent one of my children, a most beautiful golden color, just like your hair… He wore circular glasses, I think that he just wore them so he would look smarter. Isis… well… I don't remember her true fur color, she was always changing it… And Naruto… he looked so much like is father, just like you… He was pure white with amazingly blue eyes. He had the beginnings of a second tail, when everything went to hell in a hand basket…"_

_She trailed off, the tears were back in her eyes._

_"I'm sorry…" rasped Naruto putting his hand on hers._

_"I'm the one that should be sorry, my little kit." Sobbed Kyuubi. _

_"For what?"_

_"I'm the reason that the village hate you!"_

_She would've continued but Naruto cut her off. "If you hadn't done this think of where we would be… I would still be hated, and I wouldn't know why. I might never meet Hinata or the Hyuugas. I might even be on a team with Sasuke, and I wouldn't have anikichan. Can you imagine how much worse things would be without everything you've done for me?"_

_Kyuubi looked at him with a sudden realization. He was right._

_"No matter what you may have done in the past… You wanted to be my mother when my own died, and you were there for me. You taught me what I needed to know to survive on my own, before the Hyuugas you were all I had…"Naruto's strength failed him and he fell asleep… in his own mind!_

_Kyuubi looked him over, running her hands over his numerous wounds, closing them, it didn't take long, but once she was done, she collapsed next to him. "I'm always here for you, my little Naruto…" Then she too fell asleep. _

* * *

In the office of the Kazekage

Gaara was looking out a window, there was a new feeling in the city.

It was powerful, and yet familiar.

**Gaara…**

It was Shukaku, the one tailed raccoon was speaking to him, this was an odd occasion. The raccoon had never expressed and interest in him before.

'_What do you want?_' Replied the son of the Kazekage.

**An old comrade of mine is coming… Her, her container, and the container's chosen…**

'_So?_'

**I want you to teach the three of them to use the sand… **

'_What? Why?_'

**I owe her big time… She's saved my ass more than once while were still free…**

'_Who is this female you seem to respect?_'

**Kyuubi no Kitsune… The mate of the lord of the foxes… She is the strongest of the tailed demons…**

'_What's in it for me?_

**I will bond with you… You will still have total control over yourself… You would be able to sleep… the only difference would be appearance…**

'_I'll do it._'

**Just like that?**

'_I will be able to sleep… to dream… Anything that would happen to me would be worth it…_'

**Fine… Find a bed… you will sleep tonight… I must warn you though this will be painful…**

'_And you point is?...'_

Was Gaara being sarcastic?

**Just do it… you will see the results in the morning.**

Gaara obeyed the raccoon and slept for the first time in years.

* * *

WITH KAKASHI, HINATA, AND NARUTO

Naruto was still slung over his big brother's back, with Hinata following him. The trail of blood had stopped a while back, it was a good thing too, any more blood loss and their efforts would've been in vain. Hinata was growing worried, they hadn't gone to a hospital but had run practically out of the village.

They continued running.

There was a house on a hill, not far away, and it appeared to her that they were heading that way.

She was right, of course.

"Kakashi-san…" said Hinata. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see…" he said cryptically, there was no joking in his voice, but mysteriousness that suggested that Kakashi wanted to tell her but couldn't.

They approached the house… still running. They didn't even slow until they were a few feet from the house.

Kakashi literally kicked the door down, and the three of them ran into the house. They heard a series of curses that would've done a sailor proud.

The silhouette of a man was in a door way that led deeper into the house, which seemed much to big on the inside, compared to the outside.

"Who are you?" came the male's voice. It was oddly familiar.

"It's good to see you again…" said Kakashi, relief evident in his voice.

"Kakashi…?"

The man moved forward into the light.

Hinata's eyes widened.

Yondaime…

* * *

Author Notes:

By the way, if you hadn't guessed… THIS IS AU!

I didn't want to deal with Orochimaru later on in the fic, so I got rid of him here, please don't bitch at me about him. I'll be doing the same thing with the Akatsuki, though I will tell you now that Naruto and Hinata will have nothing to do with their demise.

Most of the names you see here, I researched to find. They're all part of the fox lore of Japan. Here are the meanings:

Hiroshi-no-tama: Star Ball, other than that, I don't know what it means

Inari: the god of the foxes.

MAJOR FLUFF ALERT NEXT CHAPTER! NARUHINA PAIRING FINALIZED!


	4. Chapter 4

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.

I'm quite surprised at the response that this had gotten, all but one of the reviews has been positive, and I must say that you anime readers are much nicer than the Harry Potter readers. Well… I had to day that… Thanks. NEWS FLASH: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CUTENESS THEN PLEASE DON'T REVIEW AT ALL, I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. I'M WRITING THIS FOR MYSELF AND THOSE WHO LIKE THIS.

THE VILLAGE OF THE SAND, YONDAIME'S HOME

Naruto had been rewrapped in bandages, they covered his chest, arms, and half of his face, he looked like a mummy. He was sleeping peacefully, Hinata was sleeping, curled up at his side, and golden fox with two tails was acting as his pillow, and Kakashi and the fourth were looking in on them from the door. Kakashi smiled through his mask as Yondaime sweat dropped.

"They always do that…" whispered Kakashi, leading him away from the room. "Come on sensei… There is much that we have to talk about…"

Yondaime allowed himself to be led to another room by Kakashi; to say that he was confused would one of the biggest understatements of the century. Here was his son, whom he hadn't seen since he was born, wounded badly, sleeping with a girl curled up nest tom him, and his fox familiar as a pillow. Before Naruto had come, Maki had never allowed anyone but him to touch him… It was odd… Then a light went off in his head…

_The Kyuubi…_

The fox demon that he had sealed in his son was Maki's mother.

That was solved, now who was the girl and why the hell was he in a condition that looked like he had been through a meat grinder?

The two of them entered a kitchen-like room. There was a stove, a traditional table with cushions to sit on, and several cabinets and a refrigerator. Sitting down, Kakashi watched the Yondaime make tea, waiting for the round of questions that was bound to come from the Hokage.

Tea was ready; Yondaime brought the kettle over to the table along with two chipped cups, and set down at the table and looked at his former student.

Kakashi stared back with his one eye.

Yondaime stared at him.

They stared…

"Well…?" it was the Yondaime who first broke the silence.

Kakashi sighed, but then had an idea, Naruto had been rubbing off on him, so he pulled one of his foster brother's favorite tricks: Playing Dumb. "Well… What?"

The Yondaime face dropped… right into he steaming hot tea.

After another round of curses, Yondaime rephrased his question. "What the hell is going on here? Why is my son injured so? Who is the girl? What the hell has happened since I left?"

"To answer your fist question, I thought we were drinking tea, while I was supposed to explain a few things to you, but if I'm wrong, please tell me…" Kakashi was being just like Naruto, both of them, then he changed his demeanor in an instant. "So many things have happened since you left, many of the terrible and horrendous, some completely benign, and others still were so wonderful that they can hardly be described. Which do you want first?"

"Give me the bad first."

Kakashi didn't know where to begin. "Well… To start off with, I guess this would be before I met him… The villagers hated him… Before he was four there had been several attempts on his life. To this day, few people have taken the time to get to know him as a person, not the way that the adults see him, but as kind gentle soul… By the time I came into custody of him, he had been thrown out of the orphanage just because he is kitsune… He had been living on the streets for at least a three months, but the orphanage refused to give even the Hokage any information about the child saying that is was their right to refuse service to anyone they chose."

Kakashi account of the evil things in the Yondaime's son's life continued until the fourth could not take it anymore, he held up a hand. "Stop… I can't take anymore…"

Kakashi gave the fourth a few moments to recover. "But not everything is terrible, I mean I took him in as my little brother, not his father thank you… yeah that's got to be it for the benign. As for the wonderful, the Hyuuga clan took him in… well the both of us. We became part of their household, though Naruto was induced into a new form of the branch family." Kakashi smiled ruefully, shaking his head. "He calles Hyuuga Hiroshi okasan, and Hyuuga Hiashi and Hizashi ojisan. The Hyuuga clan had some people who hated him, but those people were quickly taken care of by Hiashi and Hizashi…" Kaksahi let that last part hang in the air allowing the former Hokage to think of several ways the two heads of the Hyuuga clan could take care of someone.

"W-What about the girl?" Yondaime's voice was that of a broken man, much like the voice that Kakashi had heard on the night that his wife had died.

"That is the best part of your son's life, sensei. One day, sometime after being kicked out of the orphanage, she was alone and was being attacked by some very stupid Genin… our little Naruto came to her rescue, blocking her from the attacks that the Genin were throwing at her with his own body. Hiashi, Hizashi, and Hiroshi saw the whole thing. They had never thought that, someone that they had thought was worthless, would go through bodily harm just to save someone he didn't even know. That was the start of their friendship, although I think that for her, at least, it has grown into something more. She is the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, Hyuuga Hinata. She is also his partner."

Yondaime's face slowly turned from that of a broken man to a grin. "I see… My son has good taste? No?"

"That he does… Now it's my turn…"

"Huh?"

"Where the hell have you been for the last thirteen years?"

Yondaime sighed and set down his tea cup. "First of all, I can't have you people calling me the Yondaime, sensei, or Hokage or anything of the kind. Call me by my name."

"Which is…?"

"Oh… sorry. I was called Uzumaki Arashi for the longest time, but then I took Maki's, that's the fox that Naruto and Hinata are using as a pillow, anyways I took his advice and changed my family name. I am now Kitsune no Kitsu, or the Bark of the Fox Sprit."

Kakashi burst out laughing.

Kitsu looked at him oddly.

"Oh Kami…" gasped the copy-cat ninja. "That has got to be the funniest things I have ever heard, good joke sensei."

"I am not joking."

Kakashi sobered instantly, looking into his former master's eyes deeply. "Great Kami…"

"What? What is it?"

"You don't know this, but when Naruto was two, the village decided in their ultimate wisdom that he should not be allowed to have a name connected to the Hokage. He was stripped of his name and given a new family name… He is now KITSUNE Naruto."

Now Kitsu, didn't know what to do… In some insane way, Both he and his son had taken the same family name, although Naruto had been forced to take the name, which made the fourth very angry. And angry Yondaime is a force to be afraid of… an angry Yondaime's Rasengan would blow away half a village. "That's not important right now… What is though, is what are we going to do about his injuries and how are we going to train the two of them without you having a partner?"

"I've already taken care of that…" said Kitsu. "I sent for a former partner and old friend of the third; Tsunade, another of the three legendary, she's also a master healer."

"Now that you mention it…" said Kakashi evasively, "There are only two left of the three…"

"Huh?"

"Orochimaru attacked us on the road here… Naruto was injured defending us, I'm guessing that Kyuubi gave him power, or took over… But the thing is… Orochimaru… well… he's dead. The Kyuubi did some technique that; I'm only guessing here, that absorbed either the life force of the snake or all of his Chakra, killing him."

Kitsu stared again…

Hinata came into the room, looking at both Kakashi and the Yondaime. She bowed to the Hokage, then walloped Kakashi on the head.

"Moron… You don't even stop in to see how your own brother is doing." Said Hinata, her voice dripping with malice. "forgive me Hokage-sama…" and she left the room.

There was silence in the kitchen.

Kakashi was rubbing his head where Hinata had hit him. "I don't think that bringing Tsunade here is the best thing for our physical health. She's overly protective of your son; if you harm him you'd better be able to take a full physical assault from a vicious and merciless female. Just think of what would happen if Tsunade would train her… we'd be screwed… You know how strong she is…"

Kitsu hadn't heard a word of that, he was to busy laughing at Kakashi, as soon as he finished he was able to gasp, "I like her… She's just like Isis and my wife… she's perfect…"

"I wouldn't go trying to take her from him; he'd go Kyuubi all over your ass…"

"I wasn't thinking about that, in any way, I was just thinking that, from what I know and from what you've told me, she'd be perfect for him."

"I agree, but the problem is getting him to admit that he likes her, I know that she likes him…"

The two of them talked and talked for many more hours, deep into the night, blissfully unaware of the literal glowing coming off of Naruto as he drew an arm around Hinata's waist and held her close to him, a small smile gracing both of their lips.

**A WEEK LATER**

Naruto still hadn't woken up.

… And Tsunade still hadn't arrived, though the Kazekage had told them that it was because of the sandstorm that had arisen in the middle of the desert. These sandstorm in their desert were different from those in other deserts… these had Chakra in the very essence of the storm. In all actuality their hadn't been sandstorms in years, since Gaara had had Shukaku sealed inside of him, but since that Naruto's arrival…

Gaara had never been so happy. The morning he woke up…

He really hadn't had a use for the silk pajamas that his father had given him, or the cool sleeping cap that was in the shape of a raccoon, much like Naruto's panda one. He had gotten up that morning, gone downstairs in his pajamas to greet the new day. He was greeted by a high pitched squeal from his teammate Temari.

The others in the room were staring openly at him. The women had hearts in their eyes, while the men were just staring.

"What's wrong?" asked Gaara, his good mood had been shot, and needless to say, he was far from pleased that no one cared that he got some sleep.

Everyone was still staring at him…

"Would someone please tell me what the heck is going on here?" Gaara was getting annoyed, and when Gaara was annoyed people died. Sand started swirling around him, the flying particles were cutting into some people and the walls leaving small gashes everywhere.

One of the servants dropped the silver serving plate that he was carrying, it landed in such a way that it allowed Gaara to see himself. At first he couldn't tell was bothering everyone to a point that they wouldn't even speak to him.

Then it hit him…

The first thing…

He had a tail…

A raccoon tail with rings of alternating dark and light fur…

But, of course, that wasn't all…

The dark circles were no longer under his eyes…

And the kanji for love on his forehead had changed…

It now read "Raccoon…"

Then even that wasn't the end of the changes…

Most raccoons have a mask of darker fur around their eyes, and the same was with Gaara, only his mask was a darker patch of skin surrounding his eyes.

The sand had stopped swirling around, the particles of sand were hanging in the air. No one moved, no one spoke, and those people who had been cut from the flying sand, they bled.

Then something happened that hadn't happened in over a decade…

Gaara smiled, then he laughed…

And the soon to be former Kazekage of the Sand, Gaara's own treacherous father, had a heart attack…

**BACK WITH THE MAIN CHARACTERS**

Things in the house of the former Yondaime were becoming grim.

Naruto still hadn't woken up, though there was some good things that had happened. Since the message from Tsunade, she was going to have to wait for the sandstorm to die to arrive in the village, but no one knew when that was going to be. They had had to call a medi-ninja from the Sand to check up on the boy's injuries.

After removing the bandages from his body, the medic had to find a stiff drink. The medical report that had been filed by the former Yondaime had stated all of the injuries that the boy had suffered in excruciating detail. Every single wound had been cleaned, measured, and examined; and every single one of these wounds were closed, healed. But, of course, that wasn't all, there were no scars, both Yondaime and the medic had poured over, both, the report and Naruto's body, both needed another stiff drink.

Naruto's skin was slightly tanned, unmarked, and completely unblemished. There was not a mark on it. Well… except the seal that swirled out from his belly button.

And now Kitsu was kneeling next to the prone figure of his son, he had a kettle of tea steaming next to him. It wasn't often that he had a moment alone with his son with both Maki and Hinata fighting over who go to take care of him. Finally, Kitsu had gotten fed up with the bickering and made them come to a compromise. After much arguing and several fox beatings by Hinata, they came to an agreement, on a side note, the Yondaime agreed with Kakashi's earlier statement about Hinata. As a compromise Hinata gets to look after Naruto during the day, from the instant the sun was visible in the room to the instant it wasn't, Hinata had the final say on everything that had to do with Naruto. But as soon as the sun was down, Maki got control. At first, Maki had tried to kick Hinata out of the room, but Naruto refused to release her waist. Hinata questioned Maki about his reasons for caring for Naruto, apparently Maki wanted to do everything for his mother's vessel... Hinata was having none of that, she was his, as the fox would phrase it, his mate.

Kitsu pushed those thoughts away from his mind as he took another sip from his tea as he looked at his boy. He had tears in his eyes, he had missed so much of his own son's life, there was so much that he vowed to make up for, and the Village of Kohona had much to answer for… And they would pay… Pay for all the hell that had happened to him for no reason…

The tears just wouldn't stop after they started, and he didn't notice Maki walk into the room, and sit next to him both of his tails swaying in a imaginary wind. The legends say that foxes only gain a tail after a hundred or a thousand years of age, but that's not completely true. In times of extreme stress or disaster a fox can grow another tail or more, but it depends on the fox.

"Not everything is all bad, Kitsu-san…" said Maki in a highly intelligent voice, that was still laced with the seductressness that the entire fox race holds. "Look at it this way, Naruto-sama is here with you now… "

Kitsu looked over at his foxy friend and smiled a bit. The stupid fox had a point.

"Now if you don't mind…" Maki, pushed his friend out of the way and re-positioned himself under Naruto's head and grinned at Kitsu.

Kitsu just shook his head at the fox, took a last drink from his tea and walked out of the room, bumping into a scantily clad Hinata on his way out. If one thought that Hinata could blush a deep red, the former Yondaime beat her hands, down. Hinata was dressed in a slightly too small silk pajamas that were slightly wet from her bath and they hugged every one of her already developing curves.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama…" she squeaked as she rushed into the room that he had just left, slamming the door shut behind her. The Yondaime, after recovering from his initial shock, walked off to his room shaking his head.

**MEANWHILE WITH KAKASHI**

After reassuring the himself that Naruto was going to be fine with his father, Kakashi set out to return to Kohona with a caravan, there was just no other way he was going to get through the sandstorm, then the leader of the caravan had promised him that they would lead him back to the Sand, with Tsunade.

The trip was hell. Not enough water, not enough food, and there defiantly were to many thieves, he kept loosing his copies of _Icha Icha_ _Paradise_.

He was relieved when they reached Kohona. He could finally repurchase all of the books that had been stolen, basically replacing his entire collection, but there were bigger things than that to do. Such as dealing with the Hokage and the body of Orochimaru…

Or so he thought…

He laughed at the sight that met his eyes as he reached the Hokage's tower. There was a huge banner proudly proclaiming that the snake sennin was dead, though it made no mention to who killed him.

There was going to be some explaining to do.

As Kakashi made his way down the streets of the village, there was evidence that there had been a large and wild party very recently. Even the ANBU had hangovers.

The only one without a hangover was the Hokage. He was up and about, making as much noise as he could… No one ever said that he had to be a KIND old man. The sight of Kakashi made him smile and shout down form his balcony, "HELLOW THERE KAKASHI-SAN! COME ON UP HERE!"

Kakashi smiled and did his ninja teleportation-thing up on to the balcony.

Before he could do anything, the Hokage hugged him… hard.

"This is a most glorious day in the history of the village. The great evil of Orochimaru is gone and there will be no way for him to come back!"

Kakashi's good mood vanished instantly. "Do you know how that evil man died, Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi didn't respond, he sat down heavily behind his desk. "I have an idea…"

"No you don't…" Kakashi's voice never had this much venom in it. "You have no idea what it cost Naruto to kill that man… the injuries that he sustained could've killed him. You know that don't you?"

Sarutobi looked abashed, Kakashi had never shown anger in public, never mind in private. "Y-y-you mean t-to t-t-tell me that you didn't kill him?"

"No you senile old man! Do you honestly think that I would enough power to kill a sennin. Not even Jiraiya could defeat Orochimaru. Knowing that, would you think that I could where he failed?"

"I- I- I"

"You just didn't think did you?"

"…No."

"I thought as much…"

The two of them sat in an uncomfortable silence. Neither of them dared to break it. "Now… I came here to find out how Naruto is going to be repaid or nearly dieing to save this arrogant village… again."

"Orochimaru was an S-Class missing ninja, so he will be rewarded accordingly… I will not allow for the council to cut his pay again, he will receive the 2 million ryu bounty and then the title of… well… I'll come up with a new one that will fit him, and only very few people."

The Hokage was about to continue, but Kakashi cut him off saying. "I have found his father."

That shut him up.

Before the old man could ask him anything, Kakashi launched into the story of how the battle had happened and the meeting of his father. After the story was done, Kakashi allowed for everything to sink in.

"I knew that the man who was to teach them was powerful, but I never knew that Uzumaki Arashi would teach them…"

The two old friend continued talking for many more hours, the anger and venom gone from Kakashi's voice, they sounded like just like old friends.

Though the Hokage and Kakashi had plenty to catch up on, but Kakashi knew that he should be there with his 'little brother' when the kid awoke, Tsunade was going to meet the caravan before they left the hidden village of the leaf. And that was in just two hours, the Leaf wasn't a big stop on anyone's list of traders. The supreme council had placed severe restrictions on trade coming into the city, and there was nothing that the Hokage could do about it, the council had passed laws that limited his power, but that is another story all together.

"Where is that idiot…" groaned a very busty ninja. She was sitting with a group of dirty traders, all of whom were waiting for one person. Kakashi. He was their passenger as well as their protection on their journey to and from the Sand, other than that the group was ready to go…

Finally, Kakashi arrived. He wasn't in any sort of visible mood, he eye was blank and there was no body language.

Tsunade looked at him curiously. There was something wrong with him, she could tell.

He looked up at them…

He grinned through that stupid mask he always wore, and gave his usual greeting. "Yo…"

There was nothing wrong with him; he was just lost in thought… That just pissed Tsunade off. She smacked him upside the head… lightly. Although a light hit for Tsunade is like being hit with a ton of bricks. Kakashi crumpled like a rag doll, and Tsunade was forced to load him onto one of the wagons just so that they could leave.

And so Tsunade began her journey to the Hidden Village of Sand, with a unconscious Kakashi, and a hangover.

**WITH HINATA…**

Hinata was currently curled around Naruto's torso, it was a new position for her to sleep in but it allowed for more contact between her and _her_ Naruto. She was almost completely laying on top of him, all but her legs and one of her arms, he had wrapped his arms around her waist… well, it's more like she did the wrapping and he some how kept them there. Maki was in the room, but as far as she knew, he was asleep… which, of course he wasn't, he was watching her like a hawk. Cataloging her every move, her every gesture, and more specifically how she was with Naruto. Considering that Maki was the son of the demon inside of Naruto, he had every right to be slightly protective of the kid, but his fears were misplaced, Naruto was Hinata's, even if he didn't know it yet.

"Wake up Naruto…" Maki heard Hinata whisper in her sleep. "I need you…" A lone tear made its way down her cheek pooling on Naruto's bare chest. Maki, who wasn't their pillow this night, sat up and padded over to their sides. He looked long and hard at the now crying girl, there was something about her that he liked, but he couldn't place it… The feeling had just started and it was new to him.

He wiped her tears away from her face with one of his tails; he was actually smiling at her, something that this particular fox didn't do very often. Ever since the sealing of his mother, happiness was not something that was common for him, but now…

…**oOo…**

The climate of the Sand usually never changes over the seasons, but there is some difference, there's hot, hot, and hellish. In the world of non-desert people the climate was growing colder, but not here in the Sand. The days in the village were getting hotter, so hot in fact, that during the day the floor on which Naruto's bed had been placed became to hot for the bed to continue its existence on the floor, so Kitsu moved him to a hammock.

Hinata was growing accustomed to the heat, having placed her and Naruto's orange leather jackets in a closet along with both of their heavier clothes. The Yondaime had purchased the both of them loose fitting very light colored clothes. Hinata loved the clothes, she thought that they would entice Naruto much better than the ones that her mother, father, and uncle had helped her pick out for that very purpose, but that is another story.

After being in the home of the Yondaime for about two weeks, they had their first visitor. It was a kid with an odd raccoon mask around his eyes, a kanji on his forehead, although Hinata could not make out what it read, and he had amazing red hair. Hinata didn't know him, but evidently the Yondaime did, and so did Maki, the fox was next to her as she looked out the window to see who was at the door.

The former Hokage greeted the boy fondly and ruffled his hair. "Gaara-san!" he exclaimed happily. "It's good to see you again."

Gaara nodded and grinned at the same time… although slightly. "Kitsu…" That was Gaara's normal greeting, just saying the person's name… that or killing the person outright.

Kitsu moved out of the doorway to allow for the passage of Gaara into his home.

"What can I do for you Gaara-san?' asked Kitsu, bringing out some iced tea for the both of them. It was customary for the host of any guest in a home of the village of the Sand to offer his guest a cold drink.

"I wish to meet your son and his mate."

Kitsu choked on air.

"My s-son…? H-How do you-"

A raccoon poofed into existence next to Gaara, surrounded by a sandy-yellow nimbus, "I told him!" the little raccoon exclaimed.

"That… er… explains… I think…" to say that Kitsu was confused was one of the biggest understatements of all time.

"This is part of Shukaku…" said Gaara, his head in his hands.

The little raccoon stood up on his hind legs and bowed to Yondaime pompously. "True. I am the voice Shukaku, the one tailed demon raccoon, old friend of Kyuubi no Kitsune. We are here to meet with the Kyuubi… one called Kitsune Naruto… and his mate whom we do not know as of right now. There is much that we must discuss… Training that we must begin."

"Now wait just a minute." Said Kitsu firmly, showing the wisdom behind his appointment to the position of Hokage. "He is MY son. They came here so that I can partner train the both of them."

Before he could continue ranting, the raccoon cut him off. "We only wish to teach them in the things that you cannot."

"Such as…?"

"The art of the sand."

"Huh?"

A hand, made entirely out of sand, came off of the ground, picked up the iced tea from the tray that it was sitting on, poured a drink and lifted the drink to Gaara's mouth.

"Oh…" That was new to Kitsu, he had, in all of his years as a Hokage of the Leaf, had never seen or met anyone who used their Chakra like this. An uncomfortable silence fell upon the three of them.

"So…" said the raccoon, breaking the silence, "Can we see them?"

"Who?"

Gaara and the raccoon sweat dropped.

"Naruto and his mate…" said Gaara cautiously, he was fearing for the man's sanity.

"Oh… them… I'm afraid that you can't see them right now." The other two made to interrupt him, but he held up a hand to stop the oncoming questions. "You see, my son, Hinata, his mate as you put it, and his foster brother Kakashi, were attacked on their way here. Naruto was injured in the battle quite severely, and although he won, he still has not awoken as of yet. I have sent for one of the senin to come and help, Tsunade will be here with the returning caravan… I think."

It was about this time that Maki had decided to come into the room, to investigate the visitors. To insure that Hinata did not follow him, he placed a weak sleeping jutsu on her to make sure that she was asleep. He padded into the sitting room and sat next to Kitsu, looking at the newcomers intently with his intelligent eyes. He and the raccoon locked eyes and the two of them engaged in a staring contest, neither of them backing down, while Gaara and Kitsu continued their conversation.

Hinata was blissfully unaware of the conversation, he head peacefully pillowed on Naruto's chest, his arms around her, holding her close.

_**IN NARUTO'S MIND… AGAIN**_

_Naruto finally awoke, he was still in a vast nothingness, just a wall-less white space. He groaned as he came around. Pain flowed though his body as he took air into his lungs. He opened his eyes and sat upright and looked around, seeing nothing._

_"What the…" he gasped as he looked at himself. He patted himself down, his wounds were healed, and there weren't any scars. "Kuso…" he cursed. His favorite clothes were shredded and they fell off of his torso as he sat up. He stood up and dusted off his pant legs. _'Well… it seems like I'm okay… but what about Hinata-chan?'_ he thought. _

_He heard the tell-tell sounds of someone coming._

_He whipped around, ready to fight whoever it was, he didn't know that this was his mind. It was Kyuubi and Kyu. He dropped his guard and scratched the back of his head and flashed his usual fox grin._

_"Hey guys!" he shouted._

_Kyu nodded in greeting, but Kyuubi coughed and scowled._

_"Heh… Sorry Kyuubi… Hi there Kyu, Kyuubi." He amended._

_Kyuubi seemed happier as she walked to Naruto and looked him over for any signs of wounds or otherwise. Seeing none, Kyuubi enveloped him in a huge hug, crushing him to herself. "My little kit…" she cooed stroking his hair. "You're finally awake. You've been out for almost three weeks."_

_Naruto, didn't say anything, he only wrapped his arms around her and hugged back. He looked at her and his grin widened, obviously oblivious to what she had just said. Kyu sweat dropped._

_Kyuubi just shook her head and sighed, he was still oblivious to just about everything. "How do you feel?"_

_"I'm great!"_

_"Good…"_

_"Uh… Kyuubi-san… Where are we? Are we dead? Is this Heaven? Are you Kami?"_

_Kyuubi face planted as Kyu rolled on the floor, laughing. _

_"We aren't dead, no this isn't heaven, nor is it hell, I've met Kami, he'd die laughing from that last question. As for where we are, we're in your mind. An empty place as you can see… that says a lot."_

_"Hey!" shouted Naruto indignantly. _

_"Now now…" said Kyu, holding two paws in the air, gesturing for the two of them to calm down. "Kyuubi-sama, what would Inari say if he saw you like this?"_

_"He'd tell me to calm down at first, then he'd probably join in… against him."_

_"Who's Inari?"_

_"Do you remember anything I told you?"_

_"Most of it…"_

_Kyuubi put a hand to her forehead and sighed again, this kid wasn't good for anybody's nerves, he'd be the sole cause of several nervous breakdowns. _

_Kyuubi sat down with an even larger sigh and started to explain everything… again._

_After the explanation, Naruto got up and walked off by himself. Kyuubi watched him, feeling completely helpless. There was the one child in the world that she wanted to be her own son, and here she had gone and hurt him even more. Was there anything that she could do?_

_She looked over to Kyu, the fox was watching the boy walk away. There was no expression on his face, when normally there would be at least introspective wisdom there, but never nothing. He was a completely blank state as he looked at his mistress. He shrugged, then nodded his head toward to boy who was still plainly visible even though he had been walking for a few minutes._

_Making up her mind, she stood and began to walk over to him, in his mind he could do anything he wanted, he didn't know that… thankfully; it was an even better blessing in her favor that he didn't know that she could do whatever she wanted as well, after all she did live here._

_It didn't take long for Kyuubi to reach Naruto; he was too lost in his thoughts to notice her. Again, she wrapped her arms around him from behind him. He stiffened, and tried to break away from her touch, but after a few pointless moments of struggle he stopped and melted into the hug. _

_"I'm so sorry kit… I'm so sorry…" she whispered into his ear._

_He was crying. Huge tears flowed down his face and landed on his bare chest. Carefully, Kyuubi slid the two of them down to the floor, where he curled up into a little ball, hugged his knees to his chest. She held him._

_It seemed like hours had passed since his breakdown, but eventually the sobs died away and he stopped shaking like a leaf._

_Kyuubi smiled a bit, "Better?" she asked, trying to sound like his mother._

_He smiled weakly. "Yeah…" He didn't get up from her arm, he burrowed into them even more. "Why? Why would she do something like that… for me?"_

_"I really don't know kit… But I would guess that it was because you are her child… I care for you in the same way that your mother did… er… does. I'm sure that even though she's in heaven right now, I sure that she's damn proud of you… I jus hope that I'm doing okay in her stead… Can I still call you my kit?"_

_Naruto just nodded._

_Kyuubi smiled and held him to her tighter._

**BACK IN THE SAND. TWO DAYS AFTER GAARA'S VISIT**

"I really hate camels…" groaned Tsunade as she and Kakashi broke away from the caravan. They had just arrived in the hidden village of the Sand, it actually didn't take long with the caravan leading the two of them through the sandstorm. "And I'm beginning to think that I'm going to hate sand after this trip is over."

Kakashi smiled to himself; there was a part of the story that he hadn't told the overly powerful senin yet. The whole idea of getting her to come was genuine, but little did she know that once she met the two of them she would have to stay. Not because of some insane obligation, but because Naruto, by himself, could melt anyone's personal armor, pair him with the insanely cute Hinata and they could rule the world with just their personalities.

Tsunade had been trained in as a partner, but her partner had been killed. She would be invaluable to the whole process, and they would eventually need her for any injuries that might happen during any of the training.

"It's this way…" said Kakashi, picking up her bags of clothing and medical supplies and walking off in one direction.

"Hey…" she said trying to catch up with him, he was walking fast away form her in a direction that led right out of the village. "Wait up!" She ran after him, one fist raised in the air and cursing everything from Kami himself to her childhood enemies and everything else in between. She's and odd one, that's for sure.

It didn't take as long to get to the house as it did that first time, mainly because on that first night Kakashi got lost… seven times… But not today, this was a time when more urgency was need than every before, his otouto's was okay, but to be unconscious for this long wasn't good so there was evidently something that was wrong and it worried him. As he did on that night, Kakashi kicked the door open and led Tsunade into the room.

The moment that the door went flying open was the moment that Kitsu had stepped out of the shower and was heading across the hall to his room to find some clothes. Kakashi and Tsunade stood at the door, staring at Kitsu, who was standing in the hall, naked. There was a very awkward silence, Kakashi had pulled out one of his perverted book and tried to read it… upside down. Tsunade put a hand over her eyes trying not to blush, Kitsu ran into his room as fast as he could. The slam of the door could be heard all the way in the village.

The door slam had aroused Hinata, who had taken to napping with Naruto… well, she actually had taken to being in contact with him at all times. Regretting every moment of it, she went to the door, breaking her contact with Naruto, to see who was making all the racket. Hinata poked her head out of the door, and upon seeing Kakashi and some woman that she didn't know, there were two options that she could consider, either this woman was the all powerful medic that they had been talking about, or this was a woman that Kakashi had conned into sleeping with him. She went with the second choice.

"Kakashi you perverted idiot!" she shouted, running out of the room, and before Kakashi could do anything, she punched his face… Hard… He went flying. Turning to the woman that she didn't know. "I'm sorry for him… He's such a perverted idiot… And he does this all the time… Come have some tea…"

Tsunade was too busy laughing at Kakashi, who was now embedded in the wall. She was laughing to hard to even take in any of the information that Hinata was trying to give her, too busy laughing to notice when Kitsu came out of his room, dressed.

He too thought that Kakashi embedded in the wall was quite funny, though he didn't laugh as hard as Tsunade. He was still grinning as he turned to her… he was stunned. Not many people know this, but he knew her quite well when the two of them were younger. She was one of his favorite playmates, and her her's, he hadn't seen her in years. The last time that he had seen her she was… maybe 10 or so compared to his 5 years. She had become the single most beautiful person that he had met since his wife… He was struck speechless.

He stood there, staring at her, that is until Maki nipped his ankle to shock him out of his daydreams.

"Would you be Tsunade-san?" asked Maki, Kitsu was clutching his ankle and trying to keep from cursing.

It took her a few moments, but eventually Tsunade answered, "I am… (wheeze)… you are…?"

"I am Maki…"

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata."

"I-I-I-I… I'm Uzu-… Kitsune no Kitsu…"

"Good… Now where is the patient." Gone was the fun-loving Tsunade, here was the I-must-save-patient's-life-if-it-kills-me-or-you-preferably Tsunade.

"Follow me…" said Hinata shyly. She had decked Kakashi in front of one off the legendary senin, and then treated her like one of the women that Kakashi usually picked up. She led Tsunade into the room, where she had place Naruto on a futon in the middle of the room.

Tsunade immediately got to work, she ran her hands over Naruto's body, she even went over the three foot tail that was stick out from under the covers. She sat back on her heels confused. "What the…?"

By this time Kitsu had come into the room with Kakashi thrown over one shoulder and Maki behind him. The former Hokage dropped Kakashi next to a wall and mover over to his son's sleeping form. "What's wrong Tsunade-san?"

"Nothing. That's the problem. There's nothing wrong with him. There are no internal injuries, no Chakra depletion, nothing… Even the seal holding back the Kyuubi… The SEAL!"

Tsunade threw back the covers, revealing Naruto's naked torso, there was the seal… Exactly as it should've been. It allowed for the Kyuubi to interact with Naruto in any way she saw fit. "That tears it… He should be up and about… Kuso…"

She stood. "Come with me Kitsu, pick up your friend there is much that I must know before I can take the proper course of action…" Kitsu did what he was told, he re-shouldered Kakashi and then followed Tsunade out the door with Maki, leaving Hinata with Naruto. Maki, for some reason, shut the door after he left, winking at Hianta.

_**IN NARUTO'S MIND**_

_"Oka-san…" said Naruto, still in the Kyuubi's embrace._

_"Yes my little kit…?" Kyuubi couldn't believe that Naruto had just called her his mother. One of her dreams had come true._

_"I need to get home…"_

_The Kyuubi sighed sadly, she knew that this time would come, but that doesn't mean that she wanted it to… She stood, letting go of Naruto and regretting it instantly._

_"You just need to will yourself back." She said helping him up._

_"O-okay…" He was looking down at his bare feet, trying no to cry. "Can I come and see you again?"_

_"Of course you can…" replied Kyuubi, hugging Naruto again. "But after meeting my son, I don't think that you will want to come back."_

_"I want you!"_

_Kyuubi was touched. Naruto wanted her, not her son. She got an idea. "Do you know about summons?"_

_"Yeah… Hiashi mentioned them from time to time… Why?"_

_"There's not much time, but when you get back, as soon as your well enough, I want Hinata to judge this not you by the way. Find Maki and ask for the scroll, he'll know what you're talking about, just do what he says after that… Trust me…"_

_"Okay! You got it oka-san!" _

_With one final hug Naruto wavered, then vanished from his mind._

_Kyu looked at his mistress. "You know that it might be to early for him to consider doing that…?"_

_"I know… But something in me tell me that there will be one to many shocks in the days to come that he will need something to hold onto…"_

_With that the two of them walked off into the infinite distance._

**WITH NARUTO AND HINATA**.

Naruto awoke, back in his real body. There was no pain, just a very pleasant weight on his chest. He cracked his eyes and came face to face with a head of black hair, there was someone sleeping on top of him…

"Hinata…?" he groaned.

She looked up into his slightly open blue eyes. Her white eyes shot open as wide as they could go. "N-Naruto…?" she gasped.

"The one and only…"

She squealed and pressed herself tighter to him, burrowing into his chest. She was crying.

Naruto was confused… again.

Why on earth do girls cry at the oddest times?

"What's wrong Hinata-chan?"

She looked up at him, her eyes full of tears. "You almost died!" she cried, pulling herself up to cry on his shoulder. She pressed her silk clad body up against his bare chest, emphasizing that she was defiantly female. Naruto blushed, though not much could be told from his tanned skin.

Then things took a different turn. Hinata had stopped crying…

Her control had been shot...

She was biting his neck…

It was more like nibbling rather that a hard bite like a vampire. Naruto found it quite enjoyable, he groaned deep in his throat. That only encouraged Hinata even more. She started to suck on the sensitive flesh on his neck, leaving several marks that the Kyuubi decided NOT to heal.

She moved her way upward, trailing kisses along his jaw line. Upon reaching his face, she pressed her lips against everything but his lips. He groaned out on frustration as she trailed her lips along his bottom jaw just under his lower lip.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore. He rolled the two of them over so the he was on top, his hand trapped beneath her back. He took his turn in attacking her neck. Sucking, nibbling, and biting. She moaned and mewled in her own desperation. Something other than lust was driving the two of them. Naruto's want for unconditional love of another. Or Hinata's love for Naruto.

Either one...

Finally Naruto captured her lips with his own.

At first their lips were closed, then Hinata opened her mouth and licked his lips, begging, not asking, for entrance. It was granted.

Their tongues battled for dominance, slithering along each other and wrestling, probing and exploring.

Eventually, they broke for air.

"Mine…" Hinata gasped. Staring into his eyes, she entangled her fingers in his spiky hair. "You're mine… All mine… No one will take you from me… Never… I love you, and I'm never going to let you go…"

He grinned. "And here I thought that I was going to have to fight for you… I lov-"

But that was all he got out before Hinata pulled him to her again, locking their lips together. Every time they broke, one of them would say. "Mine… Mine… Mine… Mine… Mine…"

It would be hours before either of them would wind it down… Eventually it became too much work for either of them to stay awake, and they fell asleep… His arms were holding her tightly against his chest as if he was afraid that she'd completely disappear. They were completely oblivious to the three adults staring at them from the door. They had come running when they heard a male voice groan and moan.

The three of them were shocked to see Naruto roll over and pin Hinata to the floor, but even more shocked to see the heated kissing that eventually take place and it was all Kakashi could do from taking out a camera and get some new information out to Jiraiya. But the look in Tsunade's eyes told him that it might not be such a good idea in the first place. It had been Tsunade's idea to take bets on how long they were going to stay lip-locked, she'd lost to Kakashi; he had the unfair advantage to knowing their stamina.

No one noticed Maki… He was watching the two of them with great interest, and odd gleam in his eyes.

_**TBC**_

Author's notes:

Well… that was a long chapter for me. I do so hope that you liked it. There was action, mystery and romance in this one so that was a good job for me. As for Maki… well there are always some things that are kept secret from the readers aren't there? Otherwise you'd probably quit reading.

**MAJOR NOTICE: THIS WILL BE THE LAST CHAPTER UNTIL 04/01/06. MY LAST ACT TEST SCORE WASN'T THE GREATEST IN THE WORLD AND I MUST SPEND MORE TIME STUDYING FOR IT THIS TIME RATHER THAN THE FIASCO THAT HAPPENED LAST TIME. SORRY.**

Cheers.

Aengus.


	5. Chapter 5

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.

I'm quite surprised at the response that this had gotten, all but one of the reviews has been positive, and I must say that you anime readers are much nicer than the Harry Potter readers. Well… I had to day that… Thanks. NEWS FLASH: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CUTENESS THEN PLEASE DON'T REVIEW AT ALL, I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. I'M WRITING THIS FOR MYSELF AND THOSE WHO LIKE THIS.

SUNA, MOURNING AFTER NARUTO'S FIRST AWAKENING

When the sun rises over the hidden village of the Sand, it gets hot… really, really quickly. Most people living in the village have special seals on their homes to regulate the temperature, and Kitsu is no exception. Kitsu has so many seals and Jutsus on his home that its not funny, he wanted his home to basically be a miniature Kohona. Although he has these seals, that doesn't stop the heat from the sun.

The windows in Naruto's (and Hinata's) room face both sunrise and thus, instant alarm clock.

The evil sunrays flooded the room hitting Naruto right in the face, it should be noted to the reader that Hinata has her back facing the sun and her face burrowed into his chest. Now, Naruto is a heavy sleeper, not even the promise of free non-ramen food could wake him… But the sun from Suna is brighter than the sun from other villages, just because they're in the desert, I don't know why, but this isn't the real world so it just is.

A few moments after the sun reached his face, he scrunched up his eyes and his right ear twitched.

That was it…

He was awake now, he tried to roll over but he found a pleasant weight on his chest that was preventing him from moving. A groan escaped his throat, the vibrations resonating in his chest waking Hinata. She, an opposite of her Naruto, woke instantly, and after the previous night… well she was in a mood for something specific for breakfast… something… _foxy_…

Hinata knew that her pillow was awake, and decided to see how awake he was, she threw a leg over his lower chest and sat up. Naruto on the other hand, wasn't fully awake, thus was sprawled out all over their bed. She giggled at the sight, his eyes were half open, his ears twitched, evidently wanting to be scratched, his tail was off to one side and his mouth was hanging half open. She thought it was incredibly cute, her… well she really didn't know what to call him. Maki had said that she was his mate, Kitsu had said the same the thing, Kakashi said that she was whatever she wanted to be… Hinata like the idea of being Naruto's mate but wanted to hear it from his mouth before she got anymore possessive.

Carefully, she laid down over Naruto's chest so that she was face to face with him, then she reached up to scratch that special spot right behind his ear, the spot that he always scratched in the morning, but when she scratched it he melted in her arms, it was quite funny really. Naruto emitted a sound that was in between a growl and a purr.

"Are you awake yet?" asked Hinata, running one of her fingers along his bare chest. His tail twitched and began to writhe as Naruto desperately tried to go back to sleep, but was fighting a losing battle with a very determined young woman.

She shimmed up his chest a bit further so that her mouth was level with his eyes. "Don't make me bite you…"

His eyes shot open, his slitted pupils dilating.

She grinned. "I win…"

His grinned back and attacked her neck, nibbling and sucking on it, making sure to mark her as his. She was all for this, in her opinion this was the most pleasure that she had ever received…

After one last hard suck, he pulled away from her neck, a small trail of saliva leading from his mouth to a newly forming hickey on her neck.

Hinata smiled down at him and pressed her lips against his lightly. "Good morning…" she sighed as she released his lips. "Have fun?"

He hugged her and buried his face into her shoulder and looked at the mark he had just given her. "Yup…"

"You know…" she said stroking his spiky blonde locks. "If I didn't know you'd heal almost instantly, I'd give you your own."

Naruto didn't know how to answer that, but Kyuubi was cheering Hinata, encouraging her to do just that and then she would see that even her healing is selective.

"Hungry?" asked Hinata, still cradling his head.

He didn't have time to answer before his stomach let loose a low rumble that might've been mistaken for a small earthquake. It even woke their pillow, also known as, Maki; he sat bolt upright staring at Naruto his eyes were as wide a saucers.

The door to their room flew open, revealing Kitsu, Kakashi, and a Tsunade holding a tray with a steaming bowl on top of it with a triumphant look on her face.

"I told you that he would be hungry. I swear you men never think about anything, he's been asleep for what, three weeks? And before that, the only food he had was a small grilled fish on the road here, now do you honestly think that that would hold him up until now."

It took the two of them a few minutes, but Hinata did eventually get up off of _her_ Naruto and allowed him to sit up right. The two of them waited patiently for Tsunade to finish her lecture on the importance of paying attention to something, but no one really knows what she was saying because no one was paying attention. Kakashi was reading his perverted book, and Kitsu was just staring at his son.

A few more minutes passed before Tsunade finished her lecture, finally she set the tray in front of Naruto, who, being so very hungry bowed to Tsunade and dug into the food foregoing the use of chopsticks.

The aftermath of that particular… massacre of noodles was rather amusing. The bowl was quite a bit bigger than it looked, and by the time Naruto was finished, he was quite full. The only evidence that there had even been a single noodle in the entire bowl, was the lone noodle that got stuck to the bottom of the bowl were Naruto couldn't get to it.

He sat back on his bum and sighed. "That was good…"

Tsunade stared at him, she had never seen someone eat like that. It was almost as if his mouth was a magnet for noodles.

Kitsu, on the other hand, threw back his head and laughed, his son certainly took after him in the consumption of food department. Kakashi was still immersed in his stupid orange book.

"What was that, I know that that wasn't ramen?" Asked Hinata, if Naruto liked that so much, maybe it would be cool for her to learn how to make it.

Tsunade eyed the girl, and then smiled. "It was udon, a special type that every Kitsune was supposed to love; I found it in an old scroll, Kitsune Udon." Then in a very small voice, as if she had read the girl's mind. "I'll teach you how to make it later…"

With Hinata and Tsunade off in their own little world, and Kakashi reading that book, Naruto stood and stretched his back, popping the vertebra. His tanned skin, taught across his frame, there were no marks at all, and not even a single birthmark… besides the seal that held the Kyuubi.

He looked over at his father, who was still watching him, looking a little dazed. This was going to be awkward, and everyone knew it. '_Kuso… Why does everything have to be so feaking hard…_' Thought Naruto. Finally, Naruto got fed up with the situation and walked over to his father. The two of them stared at each other, Kitsu's blue eyes meeting his own slitted blue eyes. The looked so much alike it wasn't even funny. The sharp features were already becoming visible in Naruto's slightly boyish face, though in his credit the new whisker markings on his cheeks made him look older. The hair color was exactly the same, a golden blonde that stuck up in some many directions it wasn't even funny, and yet it attracted the eyes of several of the girls. The only difference in the two of them, besides age and height, Naruto's head only came up to the middle Kitsu's impressively high chest; was the fox ears and tail, but that wasn't something that Naruto had gotten from his father.

"Hi otou-san…" said Naruto, looking up at his father.

Kitsu was shocked that his son even knew who he was and the only thing that he could stammer out was "H-How…?"

"Oka-san told me everything…" replied Naruto a little emotion had crept into his voice, something that he hadn't planned. He could see the confusion in his father's eyes. "Kyuubi no Kitsune… she wanted me to consider her my mother…"

But before Naruto could say anything else, Kitsu enveloped his son in hug that rivaled any of the hugs that he had received from the odd man who always dressed in green named Gai…

"I'm so sorry son…" said Kitsu softly, evidently trying to keep from weeping.

The two of them never noticed that Kakashi, Tsunade, Hinata, and Maki had all left the room; leaving them to sort out everything that had happened between the them. It would take the two of them several hours to finish. Though it should be noted that both Hinata and Maki refused to go farther that just outside the door, just incase something went wrong.

**…oOo… **

Several hours later, Naruto and Hinata were sitting on top of Kitsu's home, watching the marvelous sunset. Hinata was sitting between Naruto's legs and had pulled his arms around hr waist and had pulled her close to his still bare chest. She had adamantly refused to let him put a shirt on over his chest until they had to start their training with Gaara tomorrow. The reunion of father and sun wasn't awkward and within a few minutes the two of them were talking and having fun, just like they had known each other ever since… well… ever since Naruto was born.

Naruto's head was resting on top of hers, and was half asleep. Hinata couldn't believe that, after all that time asleep how Naruto could be tired at all? Then she wondered how Naruto had gotten taller than her was beyond all personal comprehension, he had been as tall as her, but now she barely came up to his shoulder. But in the end, she decided that she didn't care all that much, after all she was being held by the man that she had begun to call _hers_…

**…oOo…**

Kitsu and Tsunade were watching the sunset along with the two that were sitting on top of the home, they were drinking sake and the both of them were slightly drunk. Kakashi on the other hand, was sitting next to a wall, drinking from a steaming cup and reading a scroll, one of the few times that he wasn't reading the stupid perverted book when Naruto was around.

The three of them were sitting in a comfortable silence only interrupted by and occasional hiccup from either Tsunade or Kitsu.

"Whatcha readin' Kaka…?" asked Tsunade, nearly falling over.

Kakashi looked up at the two of them, Kitsu was evidently hiding the fact that he was very drunk and Tsunade was hiding the fact that she wasn't drunk at all. "A scroll on the different tailed Gods and demons…"

"Why…?" asked Kitsu, now getting into the conversation, he could barely string two words together so he went with the simplest question that his addled brain could ask.

Kakashi rolled up the scroll and looked at the other two with his uncovered eye. "We three know that to be the perfect partners the two of them would have to be almost equal in power… Now think… Kyuubi is a nine tailed demon and she wouldn't come out of Naruto even if she could…"

Tsunade dropped her act almost instantly. "…No… You surely can't mean that Kakashi…"

Kitsu was still confused, being as drunk as a dog; he really couldn't string anything together so he was a little slow on the uptake that is until Tsunade preformed a sobering jutsu on him.

Then it hit him…

"Oh… no, no, no, no, no, no…" said Kitsu, dropping his cup and backing away from Kakashi and the table very fast. "I refuse to do that again… I will never call forth a Shinigami again… oh no. No. No. No."

"You won't have to…" said Kakashi, throwing the scroll to the both of them. "Read the portion that I marked."

_Inari, the Nine-Tailed Fox god _

_SEX: Male Type: White, Nine-tails _

_Description: _

_ Possessing a shocking coat of the purest white fur and shocking purple eyes. Guardian of the lighting element. Though possessing the power of a nine-tailed demon, Inari had only been sighted as a single-tailed fox, though in the cases of his mate's vessel, Inari has been reported to have been seen as wonderfully sculpted man with fox ears and tail who seems devoted to the boy. _

_ Inari, in the days mated to the Kyuubi no Kitsune, a nine-tailed fox she demon. Rumor has it that Inari had formed a life-bond with the demon and she has borne him three kits; this was later confirmed by Inari himself, though the names of his children were not disclosed. Inari is a kind and gentle god, and very protective of his mate and kits. _

_ Several years after his kits were born, Inari vanished off of the material plane, only to be seen when his mate was in dire need or, in recent times, when the vessel of the Kyuubi was in danger of being killed or severely injured and Kyuubi no Kitsune could do nothing to save him. Before leaving the scene of saving his mate, Inari has been reported to have said: _

_ "I will return, my Kyuubi… And then we shall never be parted… find his mate and we shall be life-mates once again." _

_ As is the nature of gods and demons, they can be sealed inside of another LIVING being. I must stress the living portion of that statement, no "all powerful" being can be sealed into a dead creature nor an inanimate object, such as a rock, a weapon, or a plant. In order to seal a demon, whether said demon is willing or not, there must be a sacrifice; usually the cost of a human life by calling forth a Shinigami. Gods, on the other hand, if they are to be sealed, must do so willingly. If one attempt to seal a unwilling god, one will only exhaust their own life force and the life force of several others, and will only enrage the god. _

The two of them had finished reading the section and looked up at Kakashi with wide eyes. They now had a new respect of the perverted Jounin, who knew that the man read things other than _Icha Icha Paradise_, and now here he was solving all of their problems.

"The only problem is how on earth do we summon Inari?" asked Kakashi, taking another drink from his cup.

"I can explain…" said Maki, coming into the room through a window; he had been out with Hinata and Naruto.

The others' attention latched onto him as he launched into the explanation of how everything 'would go down.'

Tsunade giggled.

They looked at her, questions in their eyes.

"I was just wondering…" she giggled. "What would it be like if Kyuubi was the submissive one…?"

The men and Maki all sweat dropped.

Night fell, and Naruto and Hinata had fallen asleep on the roof, completely unaware of anything other than the other's presence. The two of them would never figure out how they had returned to _their_ bed in the same room that Naruto had been in for the past weeks.

NEXT MORNING

Little did either of them know that the day that they would awake to would bring to them a new hell… but for who, no one knows.

"Get up." Hissed a harsh voice.

It was Gaara. Kitsu was and always has been a bit of a prankster and he thought it would be funny let Gaara loose into their room. Little did he know that it would cost him dearly in property expenses. Only Kakashi really knew that the two of them, when together were almost impossible to wake up.

Kitsu and Tsunade were sitting the eating area of the kitchen, Tsunade was her bottle of sake while Kitsu was eating a bowl of plain rice; Kakashi on the other hand had known what was going to happen and had left well before Gaara arrived.

The next thing that either of them knew, there was a huge explosion followed immediately by a way of sand filling most of the house, a wave of sand that forced Tsunade out of her seat and into Kitsu. Kitsu found himself with his hands (and arms) full of a beautiful woman, a woman who had smacked her head against him knocking the both of them out.

Naruto and Hinata, on the other hand (hands?)… Well they were thrown out of the room via a window by a hand of sand thanks to Gaara.

That woke them up.

The two of them sat up, Naruto was spitting sand out of his mouth while Hinata was sitting up, looking stunned.

"What the hell…?" she gasped, the sun had hit the two of them and she was already sweating. She had been able to change in that little bit of time that Naruto had been with his father, and though she was wearing clothes better suited to the heat; it was still blistering hot. She had put on a pair of loose white pants that stopped at the middle of her shins, as for a top she had a lightly colored shirt that slightly contoured to her curves. Naruto on the other hand… Well… he only had his loose orange pants that hung to the middle of his shins as well and his pack of needles strapped to his thigh. Neither of them had shoes/sandals on and the sand was staring to cook their feet.

It took them a few minutes to realize that there was someone standing in front of them.

It was Gaara, he didn't look happy… although does he ever look happy?

The two of them looked up at him.

He looked down that them.

They stared for a few minuets in silence.

"Come." Ordered Gaara, walking away from Naruto and Hinata. They looked at each other, shrugged, got up, linked hands and followed the odd kid with red hair and the kanji for tanuki (raccoon) on his forehead, not to mention the tail and the ears.

The three of them walked through the village, there were people who bowed to Gaara and others who looked at him with disgust, though no one had the guts to mess with the newcomers (Naruto and Hinata). They continued through the village they noticed that the temperature seemed to drop as they approached a large building that was on the outskirts of the other side of the village. This building was HUGE! It was solid black and the sunlight seemed to sink into the material, it was cold to the touch and there seemed to be a cold mist that flowed off of it, kinda like what dry ice looks like.

Gaara stopped in front of the building, our heroes didn't stop they walked right up to the building. Hinata reached out to touch it, but Naruto grabbed her hand away from the wall.

"You're smarter than I thought…" said Gaara, looking at them with interest.

"What are we doing…?" asked Hinata, not able to tear her eyes away from the black building.

"You shall see…" said Gaara walking straight into the building. There was no door, there was no opening to bee seen at all. "Come on…" his voice came from out o the building.

Naruto looked at Hinata and shrugged, and together they walked into the blackness.

They walking in complete darkness, there was nothing. Nothing at all, their footsteps echoed throughout the whole of the empty space. The two of them just walked until they saw a light. The odd thing about the building was that it was pleasantly cool, but there was nothing but the light, only blackness and yet they could see each other like they were in the bright sun outside.

It took them a while, but they did eventually reach the light, evidently the building was a lot bigger on the inside than it was in the outside. The light was actually a bio-dome with an odd clearing filled with tropical trees and other exotic plants. Gaara was sitting on a fallen tree, there were several object in front of him.

They marveled at the clearing as they walked over to the sitting boy and stood before him.

Something hit Naruto, literally and figuratively. A small raccoon had dropped out of one of the trees and landed on Naruto's head, knock him face first into the grass.

"There you are Shukaku…" said Gaara as the raccoon jumped onto the boy's shoulder.

Hinata pulled Naruto up off the ground, trying not to fall over laughing.

"Sit." Said Gaara. Hinata dropped Naruto, who hadn't regained his balance yet fell back onto his face. Hinata pulled him upright, still giggling, and sat down next to him, not touching him, but close enough.

There was an uncomfortable silence as they sat there looking at each other.

"Um…" started Naruto, this was rather awkward. "What are we doing here…? And who are you…?"

Gaara looked at him. "I take it your father did not explain the arrangement to you."

"No…"

"Oh… well then… I am Gaara, son of the Kazekage and Sand Shinobi. I am also the vessel of Shukaku, the one tailed-"

"Tanuki demon."

Gaara looked at him, evidently surprised.

"I am Kitsune Naruto, and this is my fox-mate Hyuuga Hinata." Said Naruto, completely missing the fact that Hinata blushed deeply when Naruto called her his mate. "I am also the vessel and adopted kit of Kyuubi no Kitsune."

There was another silence, this time even more uncomfortable than the first. Gaara was wringing his hands, Naruto was looking around and Hinata was as well.

"Ah damnit…" sighed Naruto. "What are we doing here?"

"I am going to teach you the," started Gaara as a hand made of sand rose from out of the gourd on his back and scratched the top of his head. "Art of the sand."

Naruto and Hinata were stunned, that was possible the coolest thing that they had ever seen. But before either of them could say anything Gaara started explaining various things about the sand, how it would become one of the closest things that they would every have. They would have to understand how it flows and moves before they would be able to control it. He spoke of several other things but Naruto and Hinata didn't catch most of it, they were too busy watching the Tanuki manipulate sand into various things around the top of Gaara's head, making it look like he had horns, or a halo, or antlers, or several other things that were highly amusing.

"Look you two…" said Gaara, quickly catching their attention. "I really need you to pay attention right now…"

They looked at him, all amusement gone from their faces, they were entirely serious, waiting for him to continue.

"Now…" continued Gaara. "From what I know of the two of you from Shukaku, I think that volcanic sand will be the best type of sand to bond to your chakra. The black color of the sand best reflects the both of you as a whole…"

"Okay…" said Naruto, quickly catching on, black was mysterious and powerful. "But where are we going to get this sand?"

"Your sitting in the middle of it…" said Gaara. "This entire building is made of volcanic sand, where we are sitting is actually the garden of my home. It may look like a lot of sand, but you'd be surprised how much sand there is in the gourd on my back, and once the sand is bound to your chakra you will be able to compact this amount of sand into a extremely small amount of space… I just like the gourd thing, but you will be able to do anything you want with it once you get the hang of it. But don't get me wrong, its much harder than it looks…"

Naruto and Hinata nodded in unison. It wasn't all that hard to understand and this might be fun, but Gaara didn't know that, as Hyuuga family members (Naruto isn't actually a Hyuuga but is considered one), they had received more Chakra control lessons than many of the Jounin and Naruto had made several references to Kyuubi training him in how to use Chakra.

"That's nice and all, but…" said Hinata trailing off, trying to figure out how to phrase her question.

"But…?" said Gaara, cocking a nonexistent eyebrow.

"How did all this sand end up here?" Naruto was always to the point.

Gaara sweat dropped, and looked down at his feet. "That was my mistake… I tried a new technique that Shukaku gave me to summon the sand, I tried it her in my home and I guess I put a little bit too much power behind it…"

Naruto wasn't paying attention to anything as Gaara started talking, he was looking at this "sand." He reached out to touch the wall, and to his surprise, it reached out to him. Three tendrils of the black sand curled around his arm, not touching him but hanging in the air.

"Um… Gaara-san…" said Naruto, manipulating the sand around his arm, Gaara looked up at him, his eyes widening at the sight. "Is it supposed to do this?"

Gaara was shell shocked. Even with Shukaku's help it had taken him years to understand the sand and then to use it, but to do so almost instantly... it must've been the Kyuubi… yes it had to be the Kyuubi

Hinata got up off of the floor and walked over to the wall next to her mate. She too reached out to the wall and again it reached out to her, three tendrils coming out to her and she too could manipulate the sand rather easily.

That shot Gaara's theory.

"Well then…" said Gaara that was odd, they shouldn't have been able to do this. "Since you can use the sand… We'll have to get you something to put it in… but for that can you control more than that?"

Naruto and Hinata smiled the smile that would've scared the living daylights out of the great Kami.

From the outside it looked as if the huge black building had been cleaved in half and both Naruto and Hinata hefted the huge amount of black sand over themselves with apparent ease, though Hinata had a slightly harder time than Naruto, after all she doesn't have a demon or a god sealed inside of her…

Sunlight from the outside world flooded into the bio-dome as the black sand seemed to collapse in upon itself as it snaked around the both of them in black tendrils.

Naruto was experimenting with the black sand; he made it flow up around his arms to his hands, and closed his hand around it as it formed itself into a completely black sword. Hinata was doing similar things as well though she wasn't making weapons. She was creating random things out of the sand, giant castles, people, and animals; all made of sand.

Gaara on the other hand, well… he fainted.

MUCH LATER

It was well into the afternoon when Gaara woke up. He was in an unfamiliar room alongside two other people. He sat up on the futon that he had been laid out on, pulling his gourd up next to him. The door to the room opened, and Naruto came into the room. Seeing that Gaara was awake, he silently beckoned to Gaara to follow him.

Gaara stood, looking over to the other two in the room. There was Kitsu and another on the bed, together, the woman was snuggled into his chest and he had his arms lovingly around her.

He looked at Naruto and cocked his head gesturing at the two of them. Naruto shrugged and beckoned for Gaara to follow him. As Naruto turned to leave to room, Gaara noticed a thick tube on his back made of old worn leather.

'_So that's what's he going to use_' thought Gaara as he followed Naruto through the house, which he now noticed was Kitsu's.

Finally they reached the sitting room. Kakashi was back from where he went, he was watching the T.V. in the room, and surprisingly enough, he wasn't wearing black or his normal outfit, but was in loose white clothing and had forgo the use of the mask he always wore. Under the makes was nothing special, just a mouth and a very defined chin, but nothing hideous or extremely… alluring. Hinata was sitting on a long cushion reading a book on the different hidden villages and their specialties. Naruto walked over to her, slung the tube off of his back and flopped down onto the cushion and place his head into Hinata's lap, she immediately smiled and began to run her fingers through his spiky hair as he purred loudly.

Gaara watched them; there was something about how they acted together, how they were so comfortable together, and somehow watching them, everything made sense, what everything was or what kind of sense it made eluded him though…

"What are you going to do now?" asked the tanuki vessel creating a seat out of the sand in his gourd and sitting on it.

"Probably going to go out and see the other villages and learn some new stuff… then on the road we'll be trained…" answered Naruto, snuggling his face into Hinata's firm stomach, the vibrations from his voice causing Hinata to giggle.

"Why don't you come with us?" asked Hinata.

Gaara shook his head sadly. "As much as I would like to, there is too much that I have to do here. I must look after my siblings, and their well being as well as my own, then I still wish to enjoy life here in the sand. Maybe find love…"

Naruto turned to him, looking at him seriously. "We want you to know that you are welcome to come and join us whenever you find that life here is to boring or you just want a break. Feel free to bring your brother and sister, possibly this person that you will learn to love."

Gaara looked at him. "How did you know that I had a brother and a sister?"

"Easy… If you had two brothers you would have said your brothers, same as if you had two sisters. Now, the reports from the Hokage said that the Kazekage only had three children, therefore you have one brother and one sister, and you are the final child of the Kazekage." Said Naruto looking smug as Hinata continued her stroking of his hair.

"That was good…" said Kakashi looking up from the T.V.

"Elementary, my dear aniki-chan, elementary." Replied Naruto, looking smugger, if that was even possible.

Gaara nodded and stood to leave. "I must be off…" he said looking down at them. "Come visit me sometime. If not, we'll take the Chuunin exam at the same time, just send a little fox my way…" and with that he left in a swirling of sand.

After the swirling of sand had stopped, Naruto looked up at Hinata from her lap and sighed. He was perfectly content, there was nothing more in the world that he wanted. He had his "mother," his mate in Hinata, and his father was alive, everything was right in his world.

"So…" said Kakashi, turning off the T.V. and facing them with an odd look on his face. "What do you two plan on doing now?"

Naruto and Hinata sweat dropped.

"Weren't you listening to Hinata-chan?" asked Naruto, looking up from Hinata's lap at his big brother.

"Yes…" he replied. "but-"

"But nothing." Interrupted Hinata. "That's what we're going to do… Well a little after Kitsu-san and Tsunade-sensei wake up…"

"That might take a while…" sighed Naruto. "They looked very comfortable; Tsunade was curled up in otou-san's arms and he looked like he didn't want to let her go."

"Kinda like us yesterday, neh?" replied Hinata.

Naruto just grinned and nuzzled his face into the little bare skin of her abdomen (again), while Hinata giggled and went back to stroking his hair.

Kakashi, on the other hand, he went back to watching the T.V. a small smile on his face. He had been able to read his little brother's emotions with ease ever since he had gotten to know him- a few weeks after he had taken him in- and he could tell the immediate change in him. Naruto had become… well he couldn't exactly put his finger on it, but if he had to classify it Kakashi would say that Naruto had become more like a kitsune.

Hinata sat there, stroking Naruto's hair, and reading her book for hours; Naruto purring in her lap. Maki watched them, a small fox grin on his face; soon, he knew, he would have both his mother and his father back. These two humans could become his brother and his brother's mate, after all, what brother would mate with his sister, that's just gross.

A FEW DAYS LATER

Let's just say that Naruto and his father are more alike than in just looks. The both of them love to eat, love their friends, and LOVE to sleep. Naruto and Kitsu are almost impossible to wake one they are comfortable, and let's just say that Kitsu was very comfortable. He had a beautiful woman in his arms… what more was there to the world?

Naruto watched his father and Tsunade snuggle closer to each other in their sleep. He wondered if that looked like he and Hinata had looked like before he had woken up, she was curled up around Kitsu and he her. Naruto was so busy watching his father sleep that he didn't notice Hinata come up behind him and wrap her arms around his waist and rest her head against his shoulder.

"Hey there…" she sighed.

"Hey…" was his only reply.

Their voices caused Tsunade to groan in her sleep and roll over pulling Kitsu onto his side, his face buried between her ample breasts.

Hinata and Naruto sweat dropped.

"Maybe we should leave…" whispered Naruto, just in case they elicited more movements from the two sleeping adults.

"Yeah…" whispered Hinata, shuffling her feet backwards and pulling Naruto back as well.

The two of them were in the hall and well down the corridor before either of them made a sound, but when they were out of earshot they burst out into laughter, they were laughing so hard that they ended up on the floor. It would take them a few minutes before either of them could stand up again.

THE NEXT MORNING

It was right after breakfast when Naruto and Hinata had had enough. Kitsu was pushing the limit here, when Naruto had been knocked out he had been drained from the fight with Orochimaru, but Kitsu… Kitsu had only been knocked out by Tsunade's head; not even suffering from Chakra exhaustion.

Naruto stood up from the table that the three of them were eating at, Kakashi refilling his bowl of rice and Hinata sipping at her cup of tea. He walked out of the room grabbing his leather tube with sand as he walked out of the room.

"Heh, heh, heh…" chuckled Kakashi, taking a bite out of his rice. "That oughta be really interesting…"

Hinata dropped her tea and ran after Naruto, her own sand in a black leather pouch at her side. Kakashi gulped down the rest of his rice at the insanely fast pace that he used to use when he wore his mask in Kohona and took off after the both of them.

He reached the room expecting to find carnage and bloodshed.

There was Naruto, Hinata right behind him; he was holding a very large water Jutsu right above the sleeping couple. You could from the cool mist coming off the water that it was nearly freezing into ice right there in the air.

He let the water fall.

Kitsu woke up with a start, holding Tsunade even closer to himself. She was shivering and whimpering, but awake. They were soaked to the bone and very cold.

"ugh…" groaned Naruto. "Get up goddamnit."

Kitsu looked up at the imposing figure of is son. If he hadn't noticed it before, but he sure as hell did now. Naruto had gown taller in what seemed like overnight and there was an unusual presence around him, like a great pressure had been put on his own personal Chakra.

Unconsciously, Kitsu shivered in fear of his son, he had never seen such power radiating from a single human, oh sure he had seen this kind of power from numerous people or perhaps a demon/god, but never from one human. But then he remembered…

Naruto, his very son, had the great Kyuubi no Kitsune sealed inside of him. The very same demon fox that he and his late wife had befriended and the mother of his bonded familiar, Maki.

Tsunade was awake, and had stopped shivering, she to felt the pressure on her Chakra, but she really wasn't concentrating on the pressure, there were more important things than that. First of all, there was the fact that she was being held by a pair of very strong arms that made her fell so warm and comfortable. Second was the fact that she was very wet and very cold, despite the calming arms that surrounding her. She could feel her anger boiling… oh boy… Naruto was going to get it.

The sennin bolted out of Kitsu's arms and charged at Naruto. Naruto bolted out of the room right in front of the enraged woman, grabbing Kakashi in the process and dropping him in the path of the sennin. Kakashi would never remember the events of that day or the three or so weeks immediately following.

The rest of the day was spent peacefully, Naruto with several large knots on his head, Hinata cradling his wounded head on her lap, Kakashi still out and Tsunade and Kitsu curled up together on a couch. For the record no one really knows what the heck is going on with the two of them…

**…oOo…**

Their time in Suna measured three months before they were all well enough to travel, after all when you live with two kitsune and one kitsune mate (Hinata) things were bound to get violent. Retaliations from the numerous pranks and jokes usually involved injuries and pain… at least when they came from Tsunade.

But the time came for them to leave the hidden village of the sand. There had been a huge argument as to who would come with them, as they only had four of the hitai-ite that would allow them unconditional access to the villages of the world. It was decided that Kakashi would return to Kohona. On the day that he was to leave, everyone gave him and Naruto space, as "siblings" there were very few days that they weren't together, but this training would take years. It was hard for the both of them, but in the end there was no words of good bye, saying good bye would be final, the two of them settled on one last hug and they would use their various Jutsus to disappear.

Naruto returned to his father's home, very depressed. The one constant in his life, other than the hatred of the Kohona villagers, was gone and he wouldn't see his aniki-chan for over three years. Hinata took one look at him, taking in the droop in his ears and the limp tail and the empty look in his eyes. He looked like this every time the Hokage sent Kakashi out on a mission that might cause the death of his brother.

Hinata smiled to herself and walked over to him. She took his hand and led him, unresisting, to their room and closed the door behind them.

Tsunade looked shocked at the boldness of the girl. The two of them had begun to bond and become like sisters rather than teacher and student. "well…"

"They won't do anything…" sighed Maki, putting his head on his paws. "Oka-san won't let them."

Kitsu sat there, not saying anything, he was too deep in thought.

"Oh…?" said Tsunade, she had grown to like the two of them and in the back of her mind knew that she had grown to love the two of them and wasn't planning on leaving… ever. "And how would you know that?"

Maki took a calculating look at the two of them; there was a protective gleam in his eyes. "I spoke with Hinata-chan while Naruto-sama was out with Kakashi-san. We spoke of many things, including their eventual mating." Tsunade nearly choked on air and Kitsu snapped out of his reverie. "I've never seen someone blush that color of red before… But Hinata said plainly that it wouldn't happen until they were joined in Marriage in both Kohona and by the laws of the demons."

Tsunade was still to shocked to do anything, but Kitsu heaved a huge sigh. "That's good…"

Maki looked at him like he was insane. "And why is that? We foxes are usually mated and have mated by the time we were at their equivalent age."

Tsunade was still choking.

"I'm not ready for grandchildren. I'm still getting used to having a son." Was the simple reply, Kitsu had taken pity on Tsunade and smacked her back, dislodging whatever was choking her from her throat. She on the other hand, knocked him out for not paying any attention to her in the first place.

Maki just laughed.

THE NEXT DAY

They were to set out that very day, early in the mourning, well before the sun heated everything in the vicinity of the sand village. Thus it was up to both Kitsu and Tsunade to wake up the very comfortable Naruto and Hinata.

Naruto was curled around Hinata and she around him, his tail wrapped around her waist twice and her legs tangled with his. His head was under her chin with his fox ears brushing her cheeks with every twitch. Neither Tsunade nor Kitsu wanted to wake them, but time was running short and the sun was going to come up in a few hours and they needed to leave soon.

Tsunade was all for using the same Jutsu that Naruto had used to wake the two of them, but Kitsu knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that that was a bad idea. Naruto was just like him, retaliation would be swift and terrible.

They settled on disengaging Hinata from him and then wake him up and only after he was ready to go, give him back _his_ Hinata.

It worked… sort of…

They woke Hinata rather easily, but that was it. Try as they might, there was no way that they could disentangle Hinata from Naruto.

They didn't have the magic touch that Hinata has with Naruto.

Under her gentle handling, Naruto stirred and awoke. The moment his eyes opened and focused on Hinata, he kissed her. Then he sat up and scratched behind his ear with one of his feet, right before he was hauled bodily out of bed, thrown at his closet, and forcibly dressed in his usual orange pants and his needle pack, but according to Maki's instructions, no shirt. He was then thrown from the closet and into a newly dressed Hinata's arms. Naruto still hadn't returned to the realm of the living and was still half asleep.

It took a few more minutes, but eventually the four of them (plus Maki) were exiting the village gates, Naruto was dragging his feet. By the time the sun was up, their little group had made it to an unfamiliar forest. This forest was deep and dark, and filled with a deep and powerful Chakra that emanated from the very trees.

Maki was completely at home among the trees and so was Naruto. Though he didn't know this, this forest was the very forest that Kyuubi had been born in.

As the walked, they began to notice the signs of village life, literal signs, a built road and the occasional trash can that read '_Please Help a Keep Our Forest Clean._'

Cue sweat drop.

They continued walking, desperately trying to ignore the weirdness of the forest. Slowly, a huge gate came into view. It was the weirdest gate that they had ever seen.

It was made of wood, but that wasn't the weird part of it. Adorning the door were several circles with different symbols and geometric designs in and around them. They glowed with blue light. The walls that surrounded the gate were plain grey cement; along the edges of the gate were similar circles that glowed with reddish light.

As they approached the gate, it swung open toward them, there were five men waiting for them. All but one of them were dressed in green spandex, similar to that of Gai in Kohona, the one in the middle, he was old and decrepit with long flowing white robes and beard.

There was a long awkward pause.

Naruto and Hinata sweat dropped. The men in spandex all had huge eyebrows and the same bowl cut.

Then…

"Yosh!" bellowed the four in spandex. "YOUR FLAMES FO YOUTH HAVE LED YOU TO OUR VILLAGE! WELCOME!"

Author's Notes:

Well that's the next chapter, and I must say that I'm not all that proud of it. In my opinion it has been my worst chapter.

Thank you for understanding about my test and letting me take a break.

The rest of this has been hand written and is being reviewed by my co-author Kitsune no Noriko. Chapter will be released at she finishes with them.

Next Chapter: More NaruHina!

New Ninja Skills

New people!

More of Kitsu and Tsunade

The mysterious land of Gai clones!

I wish you well.

Cheers

Aengus.


	6. Chapter 6

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.

I'm quite surprised at the response that this had gotten, all but one of the reviews has been positive, and I must say that you anime readers are much nicer than the Harry Potter readers. Well… I had to day that… Thanks. NEWS FLASH: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CUTENESS THEN PLEASE DON'T REVIEW AT ALL, I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. I'M WRITING THIS FOR MYSELF AND THOSE WHO LIKE THIS.

THE NEW VILLAGE…

"_Yosh!" bellowed the four in spandex. "YOUR FLAMES FO YOUTH HAVE LED YOU TO OUR VILLAGE! WELCOME!"_

Cue major sweat drop from the four, including Maki.

Naruto and Hinata both knew Gai in their village, and it was disturbing to find more of him, and it was even more disturbing to find a whole village full of them. From what the group could see most of the villagers were wearing similar spandex, though not all of it was green. All of the men had bowl cuts, even the children, and very large bushy eyebrows. The women had normal eyebrows for women and longish black hair, but they were all still wearing the same green spandex.

"Hush you…" sighed the elderly man in the long white robes. His voice was raspy and worn through years of use and yet it was warm and comforting, like the familiar voice of a kindly grandfather. The four men flanking him deflated and stood behind the old man grumbling about '_having their flames being extinguished._'

"Now where were we?" said the old man, returning his attention to the group of four plus Maki.

"Ano…" said Kitsu, he was still a little shocked. Partly from these odd people and partly from the fact that Tsunade had grabbed his arm, pretending to be helpless, and was now unaware of the act that she was pressing the limb firmly to her breasts. Maki was probably the only one who had noticed and he was rolling on the ground laughing at the expression on his bond mate's face.

But Kitsu's mind was else where and he couldn't finish his thought, so Naruto took him up where he had left off.

"Sorry, but where the hell are we? And who the hell are you?" Hinata hit upside the head every time he had said hell.

The old man seemed to smile in a bemused manner, but now one could really tell, he has a very long beard covering his mouth.

"Come with me and you shall know…" with that the old man began to hobble away, his back arched over. The four of them looked at each other and slowly followed him.

As a group they walked through the village, some people stopped at stared at the unusual people, but most of them just smiled and waved at them. Everyone in the village was so cheerful and happy; there was not an unkind word or gesture from anyone, not even the grumpy old men. Speaking of the people, after a few block into what was becoming a HUGE village, their was finally some variation in the look of the people, their hair color changed, skin color, hair cuts, and the color of the spandex that they were wearing.

"These are the civilians of the village." Said the old man, answering their unasked question.

Kitsu nodded, his mind was still focused on his arm, which was still firmly pressed between Tsunade's breasts, and she seemed content to keep it there. Maki was looking about the village, taking in every little detail that his eyes could see, mainly he was watching the people, but he did notice Kitsu's predicament and he thought that it was becoming increasingly hilarious to watch his bond mate fluster.

Naruto and Hianta were walking right behind the old man with Kitsu, Tsunade and Maki behind them. Hinata had laced her fingers with his and was walking very close to him. There were so many new things in this village. They had passed several shops showcasing things that she had never seen nor heard of, their were several weapon shops that she planned on making Naruto taker her to and also some very cool looking stores for clothes and other things. Oh yes, this village was going to be fun to be in.

After almost half an hour of walking, their group of people saw a tree coming out of the center of the village, its leaves covering several other smaller buildings like a huge umbrella. The old man who was leading them suddenly stopped causing Naruto and Hinata, both of who were to caught up in looking at the huge tree, to run in to him and Kitsu and Tsunade on top of the three of them.

The resulting pile up was one of the most amusing things that had happened in that village in years; in fact several people took pictures of the mound of people. Who ever still had ears untouched by curse words… well lets just say that Tsunade and Hinata's words for their current predicament let nothing to be unheard.

The old man had landed face first on the ground with Naruto right on to of him with Hinata lying face first on top of her mate. Kitsu had landed on Hinata his back to hers, Tsunade landed breast to face first on top of Kitsu, who had wrapped his arms around her because he "thought" that something had happened and they were rolling down a hill.

It took them a few minutes to get up, mainly because no one who had witnessed the event wanted to help and they thought that there was no need to help, after all, as a whole, these villagers had never seen the old man laugh do hard.

Maki sat there the whole time watching them sitting on his back haunches swishing his two tails back and forth. He hadn't had this much fun in years.

After getting back to their feet and dusting themselves off. Kitsu's face was so red that people thought most of his blood was in the vicinity of his face. Tsunade on the other hand, she didn't know why Kitsu was so red, though she thought that it was funny. Naruto and Hinata were both helping the old man back onto his feet, all three of them were laughing; well… the old man's laughing had set the two of them off. And after a few more minutes of laughing the continued on their way.

Despite the fact that the huge tree looked far off in the distance it barely took them five minutes to reach the bas of the tree. The five foreigners were surprised to find another wall around the base of the tree with similar markings on it like the outside walls. The gate was guarded by three "Gai's" all of whom were armed with different weapons. These three men bowed to the old man and stood aside to allow for him and the five newcomers to enter the clearing.

The old man walked to the base of the tree with the other five following him, surprised to find that the tree hadn't been carved out into a building. Instead they found themselves following the old man as he jumped into the trees limps with surprising vitality for one who seemed so old.

At the heart of the branches they found an office with several chairs, a large desk, a wardrobe, and a full bookshelf; all of which came out of the tree itself. The old man took a seat in the chair behind the desk and motioned for the others to make themselves comfortable. Naruto took a seat in one of the three chairs closest to the desk and Hinata took it upon herself to take her seat… in Naruto's lap. Kitsu sat next to his son and Tsunade in the last chair nearest to the desk, and Maki jumped into her lap.

There was an odd silence in the "office" as the six of them stared at each other.

"It is good to see you again Naruto-san." Said the old man, the others were shocked, minus Maki. "Tell me… how is Kyuubi-sama?"

"W-What do you mean? W-W-Who is this Kyuubi? H-How do you know me?" stuttered Naruto, feeling very flustered.

The old man sat forward in his seat, a new look in his eyes. "Do no presume that you can lie to me Naruto-san. You may no remember me but I do know you. I know you very well in fact. I've know Kyuubi-sama far longer than either of you, she was the guardian spirit of this forest until she mated with Inari-sama."

Before anyone could say anything, there was a swirl of red Chakra from Naruto, it flowed onto the floor like mist and slowly took the shape of a fox with blazing red eyes that shown with a demonic light.

"Oka-san…" said both Naruto and Maki in unison.

No one, but Kitsu and this old man were the only ones to have truly seen Kyuubi in her ethereal form. Naruto had seen her human form in his mind, but never like this; likewise Maki had only seen his mother in her fox form in their time together as a family, but never like this.

"It is good to see you again Kisho-san." Said Kyuubi in a ethereal voice that was nothing like what Naruto knew from his mind. She noticed his confusion and nuzzled his hand with her head in a very affectionate manner. Maki was struggling in Tsunade's in lap to run over to his mother, but Tsunade was holding him firmly in her lap.

"It has been so long Kyuubi-sama." replied the old man now known as Kisho.

"Almost sixty years…" was the reply.

"Far too long…"

"Not long enough…" spat Kyuubi. "You know why I left here and I was in no hurry to be back."

"Yes… I understand your position, but right now there are few people other than ourselves who could help you with the TaiJutsu and the gentsatsu techniques that you require."

"Yes… but any whiff of that evil again and we shall leave."

"I… u-understand…"

Kyuubi nodded and then turned to the chair that Naruto and Hinata were sitting in, she stood on her hind legs and gave Naruto a little lick on his cheek with her tongue made of pure Chakra and dissipated into the air. The lick had left a tingling trail along his cheek.

Not paying attention to anyone else, Naruto wrapped his arms around Hinata, picked her up and leapt into the trees branches, Maki close on their heels.

"What the hell was that about?" asked Tsunade.

Kisho looked at his desk for a few moments, then, in a soft voice, "This has everything to do with why Kyuubi-sama left this forest… it even has roots in the reason why you left Kohona after sealing Kyuubi-sama into your son, Uzumaki Arashi."

Kitsu recoiled violently, "How do you know that name?"

Tsunade was staring at Kitsu in a new light, she remembered him from her child hood, and she was ashamed to admit it, even though he was five years her junior, she had had a small crush on him. But now…

"There s much that I know… and much that you should know…"

The three of them continued to talk well into the night.

WITH NARUTO, HINATA, AND MAKI

It the very top of the tree Naruto stopped and sat back down on one of the top most branches, channeling Chakra through his body to keep the tree from breaking. He buried his face into Hinata's neck and cried. There were so many memories had flooded into his mind from Kyuubi, so much pain and suffering by humans and demons alike, it hurt just to remember any of it.

Hinata cradled him in her arms, cooing soft, comforting words to him. She stroked his hair and fox ears.

Maki sat on the very top of the tree looking out over the village. '_So this is THAT village…_' he thought. For many years while living with his mother, she had ranted about this one village, and how much she hated these evil people. He also knew that Naruto must also be getting these memories from his mother through the bond, but he had no idea as to what that entailed.

"How…? How could they be so cruel…?" sobbed Naruto into Hinata's neck.

Hinata had no idea as to what he was talking about, but she assumed that it must have been truly horrible to make Naruto like this. Trough all the years that they had known each other, nothing had made him cry like this, not even the time he was attacked by those drunks at the festival marking the "defeat" of Kyuubi.

Maki jumped down to where they were, and perched himself on the branch, content to wait for his brother to calm down. He had a new respect for the boy, though he was jealous about him housing his mother, he also had the hellish task of holding her memories of her entire past. Maki knew that in her youth, his mother was a traditional demon, a demon that reeked havoc on humans just for the fun of it. Though she never spoke of it, there was some huge event in her past that had caused Kyuubi to change her ways and become a friend of humans.

It took him a few moments, but under the gentle hands of the great Hinata Naruto finally calmed down and his sobs stopped.

Naruto looked up at Maki, his face was resolute. "Where's the scroll?"

Maki nearly fell out of the tree; that was not what he had been expecting at all from Naruto.

"You mean THE scroll?" asked Maki in a very soft voice.

"I mean the contract scroll. Bring it now." His voice left no room for argument.

"Hold on a minute…" said Maki, jumping onto a glowing ball that appeared out of nowhere. "I'll be right back." And he floated away.

Hinata looked at Naruto; there were plenty of questions in her eyes, but she didn't ask. There was something about the way his face was set that prevented her from asking anything.

Naruto's face was set, his slitted fox eyes shown with determination.

Maki had barely left when he came floating back on the glowing ball with a huge scroll clamped in his mouth.

He tried to say something but all that they heard was: "comf wif e a he wround"

Naruto and Hinata sweat dropped.

WITH KITSU AND TSUNADE

"… it was because of these stupid villagers that we lost our guardian. When she left she placed a curse on us that made us, as a whole, to lose the ability to form Chakra. For many years we have suffered because of it and were the subject to many attacks and raids thanks to that. But eventually, with the help of several very skilled doctors, specialists and Ninja, we came up with a way to use out latent Chakra."

"How?" asked Tsunade, this was her area of knowledge.

"We had to do much research… The seals you saw on the gates are the peak of our research. For us to use this new talent in battle, we had to tattoo the seals onto the hands and bodies of our Ninja. Though there were some who refused and became experts in TaiJutsu. Then there were those very few who were born without the curse, these few were sent to other villages to learn the proper ways of becoming Ninja, without our stupidity holding them back. Again there was one child who we sent out accidentally to another village even though he had the curse."

"How do these seals work?" asked Tsunade again.

"We knew that the seals would never replace the natural Chakra openings in our bodies, so the differing shapes of and in the seal as well as the runes that go into the seal affect the power and what the seal can do. There are too many way that they differ to explain all of them tonight. Now… I have arranged for you to have place to sleep, would you like for me to send out some patrols to find Naruto-san?"

"No… They shall be alright for the night." Replied Kitsu, speaking for the first time in little over an hour.

"Are you sure?"

"Maki is with them, and I suspect that Kyuubi has to explain several things to her sons and Hinata."

"Come…" Kisho said, nodding in uderstanding, he stood up and led them from the branches of the tree.

WITH NARUTO AND THE OTHERS

Maki had led Naruto and Hinata away from most of the village into a secluded part of the village that was mostly a small forest surrounded by buildings. There were no people around them for several blocks.

Maki spit the scroll out of his mouth and sat down under a thick tree. Naruto and Hinata sat down in front of him with the scroll in between them.

Naruto reached for the scroll, but Maki put a paw on the scroll, preventing him from lifting it or opening it.

"You sign this and everything will change…" said Maki in a very soft but very serious voice.

Naruto sighed, and said "Oka-san told me what I needed to know… I am ready."

Maki nodded and removed his paw from the scroll without a complaint. In the back of his mind he wanted to see what would happen.

Naruto ripped the seal off of the scroll and pulled the scroll open.

Now the reader will remember that the scroll of the frogs was HUGE and almost half as tall as Jiraiya and almost as wide. This scroll is a normal sized and easier to hold.

Inside the scroll there were no names, no words, nothing…

None…

It was a completely blank scroll.

Now Naruto didn't know that this was a summoning contract scroll, so he was a little confused.

"What's this…?" asked Naruto, not taking his eyes off of the scroll, hoping that something would appear on the scroll.

"This…" said Maki, unrolling the scroll all the way, revealing the first block. "This is a summoning contract between the demon foxes and you."

"Huh?"

"Sign it and you will be able to summon foxes."

"O-o-oh… you have a pen?"

Maki sweat dropped. "You use blood. Bite or cut your thumb, sign it, then make a five fingered print below."

"Gotcha." Naruto did just that, he bit his thumb and signed the scroll with a flourish.

Hinata had spent the entire time not saying anything, but as soon as Naruto had finished signing, she had to ask; "Am I to sign as well?"

Maki shook his head. "No… Otou-san will have his own contract for you… After all these are demon foxes, and I suspect that he will want you to have the contract with the god foxes."

Hinata had no idea as to what Maki was talking about, but agreed to his logic. "…Okay."

"No what?" asked Naruto, obviously he had not been paying any attention to the conversation going on between Maki and Hinata.

"Listen to oka-san."

Naruto nodded and his eyes went distant.

Hinata looked at Maki. "What's he doing?"

"He's going to talk to oka-san…"

_INSIDE NARUTO'S MIND_

_Naruto appeared in his mind, again it was the endless white space, although this time there was a huge portrait of him and Hinata holding each other. He smiled at the picture;, it was something he planned on doing for a long time after speaking with 'oka-san.'_

_"Oka-san…" he called into the emptiness. "Oka-san… Where are you oka-san?"_

_He spun around; there was nothing in the emptiness. _

_There weren't many times that Naruto had been scared, though the attack made by Orochimaru had done it, but this time was different. His mother wasn't here…_

_Naruto slid down onto his knees, he couldn't stop the tears from flooding his eyes. "Oka-san…" he sobbed. "Where are you…?"_

_He hated crying at all, but this time he didn't know what to do…_

_Suddenly he felt two arms come around him and hold him. "Shh…" cooed a voice that he instantly knew was his mother. "I'm sorry my little one… I was recovering from my brief stint outside, and was unable to come as soon as I heard you calling…"_

_Naruto had stopped sobbing now, but he made no move to remove himself from his mother's arms. _

_"Now what brings you here into this empty place, although I do like what you've done with the picture."_

_"I got the scroll." Was the simple reply. "And I signed it."_

_"Oh…"_

_"Maki told me to ask you what to do next."_

_"Are you sure about this kit?"_

_"No offense meant but I can't take any more of your memories… I want you here, but I can't take anymore of that pain…" Tears once again flooded his eyes. _

_"Shh… I understand my little kit…"_

_They spent a few more moments like this, but eventually Kyuubi let go of Naruto and stood, bringing Naruto to his feet as well. _

_"I want you to follow every move I make to the letter, got that?" _

_Naruto nodded and readied himself._

_Kyuubi went through several hand seals, and bit her thumb and smeared the blood onto her palm, but this is where she stopped, and thus Naruto did as well._

_"Here is where you would slam your hand onto the ground and shout 'Kuchiyose no Jutsu' really, really loud. The resulting fox will explain to you what to do next. The amount of Chakra you put into this will result in a different fox every time…"_

_"Okay…"_

_"Naruto… I want you to only use my Chakra this first time, none of your own, okay?"_

_"Yeah, but-"_

_"Just trust me, you'll like what happens."_

_Naruto nodded and gave Kyuubi one last hug before disappearing away from his mind. _

_"You think that that was wize?" asked Kyu coming out of nowhere. _

_"Don't worry about it Kyu-kun… It will only be a summon's body and I could return anytime he wished, you know that."_

_"Yes but still. He has never known a time when you weren't here, won't he feel like something was missing?"_

_"He doesn't know this yet but he's already become a half demon. After that battle with the snake his body absorbed six of my nine tails, one of which he can never not use…"_

_Kyu was silent, then; "Is that all…?"_

_"No… he has my _hoshi-no-tama_..."_

_"You can't be serious."_

_"I am… I had to use it when fighting the snake. I never suspected that I wouldn't get it back from him after absorbing so much of that power."_

_"Well there's no turning back now…"_

_"Nope…"_

_They sat in silence for a few more minutes._

_"How about some sake?" It was Kyu._

_"Sounds good." replied Kyuubi_

OUT OF NARUTO'S MIND

Naruto suddenly snapped back to the real world with a jolt. Hinata had taken in upon herself to pull him down, so that his head was lying in her lap. He sat up right to face Maki, who was sitting a little ways off.

Naruto nodded to the fox and began to gather the demonic Chakra into his body, making sure that it over powered the normal Chakra that flowed in his body. He was soon surrounded by red Chakra flames.

Maki ran to Hinata and pulled her away by her sleeve. '

Naruto started the seals, his hand were blurred. If a person was watching him they wouldn't be able to tell what seals were what.

Finally Naruto bit his thumb, smeared the blood on his opposite hand and slammed the bloody hand onto the ground and bellowed. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

There was a huge explosion and a pillar of red light came down from the sky. The force of the explosion was so great that it threw Naruto away from the pillar of light, right at a tree that had the unfortunate fate to bb behind him. Naruto was embedded about three inches into the trees trunk, making the tree crack in half.

Hinata and Maki had shielded their eyes from the blast and pillar, but were thrown a little ways back as well.

As the pillar of light faded into the air, it was increasingly evident that no one else had either seen or heard the blast or pillar… odd… but such is the ways of demons.

Hinata gasped as she saw what had become of the great pillar of light…

There was no crater of great proportions, no smoldering stones, no smoke at all.

There was only a woman…

A woman in a plain purple kimono…

A woman with amazing red hair…

A woman with three crimson flowing foxtails and two fox ears, also the same color…

"Hi there!" said the woman in a cheery voice. She walked over to Hinata and knelt down face to face with the girl. "You must be Hinata-chan… I must say that Naruto was quite correct at his description of you… You are quite beautiful."

Hinata couldn't help but blush brightly at the woman's comments.

"Maki, my son…" she said turning to the fox next to Hinata, still on her knees she opened her arms wide to embrace her other son. Maki wasted no time in leaping into her arms. The woman embraced the fox and Maki did his best to return the affection, but he is, after all, only a fox in body.

It finally dawned on Hinata that this woman…

This fox-lady was Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most feared of all demons in the entire world. And yet Hinata felt no fear… whether it was because Naruto had summoned the woman or because she knew that Naruto had her sealed inside of him or that Naruto considered her to be his mother. Whatever it was Hinata didn't care, she only cared about Naruto right now and he was still embedded in the tree that he had been thrown in.

Hinata regained her feet after a few more minutes of watching the woman and Maki converse in the demon tongue; and rushed to Naruto who was trying, in vain, to release himself from the tree. Hinata couldn't help but laugh at him; it was just too funny to watch him struggle with only his head free to move.

"Oh sure laugh at me… If you're going to laugh at me then at least help while you're doing it. AT LEAST SOMEONE CARES… IT'S NOT AS THOUGH I BROKE FIFTY LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE JUST BRINGING MY OWN MOTHER BACK! BUT DOES SHE EVEN LOOK AT ME? NO!"

Kyuubi looked over to where Naruto was stuck in the tree and where Hinata was trying to pull him out. Her eyes lit up like gems in firelight at the sight of her "son."

Kyuubi was next to Hinata so fast it seemed as though he hadn't moved at all, though she didn't bother with trying to pull him from the tree, she just wrenched the tree into splinters then grabbed Naruto into a hug that would've shattered the bones of a normal human.

Although Naruto was tall for his thirteen years, almost five feet, Kyuubi towered over him at an impressive six feet. She lifted Naruto off of the ground by his waist and twirled him around like she had seen Hizashi do so many times when he was much younger.

They were laughing. So carefree and happy. Hinata and Maki stood off to one side as they danced and made fools of themselves. Hinata smiled at the sight, she was happy for Naruto, ever since he had awoken in Suna she could always see a little bit of longing lurk beneath those slitted sapphire orbs that some people merely called eyes.

Once Kyuubi had put Naruto down, the boy immediately rushed over to Hinata and pulled her over to the woman. "Oka-san," he said joyfully. "This is my Hianta-chan."

Hinata blushed again as he called her his, it didn't bother her at all, in fact, it made her heart and mind race at the thought of being his…

"We met…" said Kyuubi, her voice was like a choir of angels singing. "And I approve once again of your choice in her as your mate. Haven't we been over this before?"

"I lost track of how many times but it's always good to hear it again and again." Replied Naruto flashing his biggest fox grin and pulling Hinata closer to him.

"Oka-san…" said Maki, trying to get her attention. "Are you well? You have been stuck in the airhead's head so long-"

Maki never got to finish that sentence, Hinata clobbered him before he could insult Naruto anymore, something Kyuubi thought was hilarious.

"You remind me of my daughter Isis…" gasped Kyuubi through her laughs.

"Just wait until you meet Tsunade-san…" mumbled Maki under his breath, he was sulking from the beating he had received from Hinata. It had been many years since he had received a beating like that. "She hits really hard… Believe you me, WE ALL know form experience."

At this Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly and Hinata looked confused.

"Well… Not Hinata-chan…" amended Maki.

"Sounds like fun to me…" said Kyuubi a mischievous look in her eyes.

"You're sadistic, you know that?" said Naruto, still holding Hinata close to him.

Kyuubi, just grinned at him, showing him her fangs. "Yup."

The three demons, Naruto included, and Hinata left the park laughing and telling stories about each other. Things were changing, and they were about to get really weird.

After walking several blocks and ending up at the gates leading to the tree where the old man had had his office, they realized something…

They had no idea as to where they were supposed to stay…

And it was already dark.

"Well now…" sighed Kyuubi, she had been leading them the entire way back to the tree. "We can either wait for someone to tell us where the hell we're supposed to go or we can find them ourselves…"

"How would we find otou-san and Tsunade-san in this huge village?" asked Naruto, genuinely curious.

Kyuubi tapped her nose and said. "We'll smell his lazy ass out." She stopped walking and took a few very deep breaths through her nose and then blushed quite brightly.

"W-why don't we find somewhere else to stay tonight… How about one of those nice trees, it is quite warm out…" Kyuubi was trying to make several excuses for not going back to where Kitsu and Tsunade were staying.

"But oka-san… Why?" asked Maki, Hinata at least had gotten the hint from Kyuubi's blush and had motioned to Naruto not to ask about it, mouthing that she'd '_explain later._'

"Let's just say that they're… occupied right now…" said Kyuubi evasively.

"Huh?"

"Just don't ask, okay?"

"Fine"

Naruto had stopped paying attention to them long before this current argument had begun and were now looking for a nice tree to curl up in. Unfortunately for them, most of the trees nearby were small and young, just too scrawny to hold their weight. The two of them walked away from the still arguing fox demons, back toward the little park where Naruto had summoned Kyuubi.

Now, here where real trees.

These tree were huge, it was really no wonder that Naruto had been embedded into one without it breaking. Finding a moderately sized tree that had several thick branches, both Naruto and Hinata leapt into the tree and settled on a branch about half way up.

The last thing that Hinata remembered was watching Kyuubi climb into the tree and place Maki in her lap; then her asking something that she couldn't understand but before she could ask, she was lulled to sleep by the vibrations of Naruto's answer running through his chest.

Author's Notes.

Yes I do know that this chapter was about five pages shorter than the others, but there have been several things that have come up in the past few days, let's start with the least important and go up from there shall we?

First: AP Testing, need I say more?

Second: Psychotic teachers assigning stupid assignments due right after the stupid AP test.

Third and most Important: My co-author, BETA reader and good friend, Kitsune no Noriko was in a very bad car accident on Sunday (4/30). For the past couple of days she's been unable to help with anything because of her being in the hospital. Doctors say that her paralysis should be over soon; she can't walk for right now and is staying in the hospital for observations. Noriko sends her love to all the faithful readers and says that "She'll whip my but back into shape real soon, so don't y'all worry." I for one am scared of her right now…

Cheers and good luck to those of you doing AP Tests.

Aengus and Noriko


	7. Chapter 7

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

If you haven't guessed by now, this will be, undoubtedly a NARUHINA fic, and I will not tolerate anyone telling me I'm wrong. Flames will constitute the largest Heretic burning in the history of the world.

I'm quite surprised at the response that this had gotten, all but one of the reviews has been positive, and I must say that you anime readers are much nicer than the Harry Potter readers. Well… I had to day that… Thanks. NEWS FLASH: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CUTENESS THEN PLEASE DON'T REVIEW AT ALL, I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. I'M WRITING THIS FOR MYSELF AND THOSE WHO LIKE THIS.

One last note: It's been a while hasn't it? But during our break, BETAing, dating, school, and writing Hidden in Plain Sight (HiPS (… _hips… funny…_;P )) we had come to the conclusion that the direction that this fic was heading in would make it seem clichéd and utterly pointless, so, with this chapter, get ready for some major changes to the world of NARUTO!!!

**MORNING**

It was a few weeks after the five of them had arrived in the Hidden Village of the Forest.

Everything had changed.

Tsunade and Kitsu were done pussy-footing around each other and now openly displayed their… whatever it was that they had for each other. Whether it was love, lust, or affection they now held for each other. It had been rather amusing the first morning after their arrival; finding the two of them entwined around each other, naked, would be forever burned into both Kyuubi's and Maki's memories.

But that is neither here nor there.

What really matters in the story is Naruto and Hinata, or, more accurately, their training in the Forest village.

And when it came to training these people took it seriously, there was just no stopping them. As soon a person could see well enough to run through the village, they did just that; though Naruto and Hinata could never figure out how so many people could run through a village and not run into each other.

Their own training started the day after they arrived in the village.

They thought that the village was trying to kill them. They were forced to wear weights on their arms and legs that started at 50 pounds and went up every day. That was just the endurance training, after that came weapons; how to use various weapons, their individual weaknesses, and how to combat those weapons with other weapons. Then strength, accuracy, basic medications and healing, Chakra exercises from Tsunade and Kitsu, TaiJutsu, and all-around combat.

They had a 24 hours of work/training and 24 hours off.

Or in other words it was hell.

But they knew that it would all pay off in the end.

Though the effects of their training wasn't immediate after the first few weeks they were moving faster and faster, getting stronger and stronger, and more and more proficient with the weapons.

Everything seemed to be perfect.

But something was bothering Kyuubi.

It was the "other" techniques that Naruto and Hinata were learning. When Kyuubi had left the village, she burnt away their Chakra pathways, hopefully preventing the village from ever using their body's energies to commit such evil ever again, and here they are now still with the ability to use Chakra. This "Genstsatsu" that they had come up with should not have been possible without outside help.

This kind of help required some kind of sacrifice, but she didn't want to think about it, though if she did find out, there would be hell to pay.

In its primal essence, the Genstsatsu was just a very ingenious way to use sealing techniques to force the body's Chakra out and able to be formed and used.

But right now that wasn't important right now.

What was important was insuring that Naruto and Hinata got the most training that they could before they were forced to return. There was something brewing in the not-so distant future that would cut everything short. How short was just a matter of time.

She glanced at the sky, it was a little after high noon, Naruto and Hinata would be at weapons training, they were working on the standards of sword techniques, though both knew that they would never use them. One, they had all the weapons they need from nature, two they had the sand control they had "learned" from Gaara.

She couldn't help but smile at the similarities between the two of them and Inari and herself.

**WITH NARUTO AND HINATA**

In a flash of steel Naruto found a razor sharp blade press lightly against his throat, courtesy of their instructor, a large man who insisted that they never know his real name and only went by "sensei."

With a flourish, Sensei slid hid blade home in it's sheath; he was smirking.

'_These brats have relied on their _"Chakra"_ for far too long. They will never be good enough to pass my test._' The man though as Naruto rubbed his limbs, sore from the beating that he had just received, he was cursing under his breath; all the while Hinata was laughing at him from afar.

'_And them giving me a female to teach…'_ The man continued to think bitterly. '_How low do they think that I've sunk in world, not that low I tell you. I should've told them no.'_

"You okay Naru-kun?" Hinata asked as she helped him to a fallen tree that they had been using a bench.

"Get away form him girl! He needs no help, he is a man, and as such has no need for the coddling of a woman." Snapped sensei, walking over to the two of them, nad putting himself in between the two of them.

Naruto's eyes were burning with hatred. This man had been doing things like this for the entire time that they had been training with him, and it was starting to really get to him. Never once had this man tried to teach Hinata anything, she was always forced to sit on the sidelines while he proceeded to beat the living daylights out of Naruto.

Little did "sensei" know that Kyuubi had arrived at the clearing just a few moments before the end of the bout. She had seen everything. I was infuriating to watch such open sexism.

This could not be allowed to continue.

She had two options, speak with Elder Kisho and have the situation rectified, or she could just beat the living daylights out him… or inform the Elder and then beath the hell out of the mistake for a man.

She liked that third option.

She walked away as silently as she had come.

"You bastard…" Naruto swore at Sensei. "I think you broke my arm."

"Serves you right." The older man snapped at him. "You let your guard down."

"One would think that one would have to let ones guard down to actually unsheathe one's sword."

"Then do it quicker."

"I can't!"

"You can and you will."

"Stop fighting." Came the soft, yet commanding voice, of Hinata. "I will fight you now." She stood, taking Naruto's sword from the ground next to him and the sword from the ground next to him were Naruto had jabbed it in pain. With no flourishes, no nothing, Hinata sheathed the sword and stood ready.

From her stance, an uninformed onlooker would not be able to tell that Hinata had never fought with one before.

"You think that you can match blades with me?" sneered Sensei.

"You should know that that is not the point of training sensei." Was the calm reply.

Sensei could not keep the rage from his face as he walked toward the girl, his sword hand twitching with ill-concealed rage.

**WITH KYUUBI**

Kyuubi trekked through the village toward the great tree, she had a bone to pick with Kisho, and she wanted to get it over with. There was something about this village that was… just not setting well with her; she wanted to be gone.

"Kyuubi-san!" called a voice from off to one side.

The great fox demon turned, it was Kitsu, Tsunade beside him, their fingers laced together.

She stopped, making the other villagers flow around her, waiting for them.

"Where are you headed Kyu-chan?" asked Tsunade, there was some kind of understanding between the two older women, allowing them to connect almost instantaneously. Maybe it had something to do with the "magic" around Naruto making everybody like each other.

"I'm going to talk with Kisho-baka, whether he likes it or not."

"Good, then we can all go together." Said Kitsu, looking around at the villagers flowing about them, they all sported the same smile and expression. "We were heading there as well. I don't want to stay here very long; something here is giving me the creeps."

"I thought so as well." Tsunade replied, glancing around uneasily. The villagers were just flowing around them, not even complaining that there was a group of people just standing in the middle of a busy street.

The three of them gave one last glance at each other, and without another word walked off toward the great tree in which Kisho lived.

**AT TRAINING**

Sensei had taken the position, ready to draw on Hinata who was standing mutely in front of him, her eyes never leaving his; she was ready.

_'How can this mere girl think that she can keep up with me?' _He though snidely, an evil smile flashing across his face. _'I believe that I will have to teach her a lesson…'_

And he sprung toward the heiress.

**THE OLD PEOPLE**

The three of them made it to the great tree without anyone stopping them, no vendors calling out to them. It was strange for a village to have no sound coming from the market district, especially around noon. The villagers were training non-stop.

Even Gai knew when it was time to sop and take a break. These people had nothing that set them apart from the next one.

There was a small building at the base of the tree that had not been there the first time that they had climbed the tree.

"What on earth is this?" asked Tsunade, knocking on the door, receiving no answer.

They waited.

And waited…

And waited some more.

Kyuubi swore and slammed her hand into the wall of the small house and was sent flying by a blast of white electric energy. She was back on her feet in an instant.

"The damn place's been blessed…" she swore under her breath. "I'll kill him."

Tsunade knew that, in blessing a place or object; one prevented a demon from touching or entering the place until it was defiled or cursed; and being the _strong-willed_ person that she is, Tsunade broke the door down.

What was inside this building was a shock to all of them.

The entirety of the interior of this small house was wallpapered in uncovered _omamori_.

"Damn that man." Tsunade swore under her breath, rushing into the small house while signing rapidly, within seconds is was in flames, the tree behind the building was somehow repelling the flames.

Growling in rage, Kyuubi leapt into the first set of branches; Kitsu and Tsunade hot on her heals.

**TRAINING**

Sensei hurled himself at the pale-eyed girl with amazing speed, faster even then when ha was training with Naruto; his sword leaping out of his sheath like lightning.

Hinata jumped out of they way, she knew that had she not, Sensei would have cut her in half. This was no longer a training session, but a full scale war between the two of them.

As quickly as she could, Hinata responded as best she could, her Byakugan activated, she swung with her own sword at Sensei's center of ruined Chakra coils; hoping beyond hope that se would connect.

She connected.

But, she connected with Sensei's sheath, which he had used as a shield; he was leering at her, a strange hunger in his eyes.

He wanted her dead…

But Hinata could not ponder this for long; sensei swung at her again, his blade nicking her cheek, sending a small spray of blood into the air.

In seconds, Hinata could feel her rage begin to boil. How could be put in charge of their training; he was obviously dangerous.

The two of them continued to clash, their blades a blur of flashing steel and sparks.

It was obvious that Sensei was not holding back and Hinata was doing everything in her power to hold him off.

Suddenly, Sensei locked blades with Hinata, the two of them held that position for only a few seconds, though to the observer it felt like an eternity.

With a quick shove, Sensei launched Hinata into a tree, he was smirking.

"I told you that there was no way for you to beat me." The man sneered.

"That is not the point of training Sensei" was the clam reply.

Sensei, staggered back at this, as if struck by a physical blow.

"You bitch." He snarled, his hands beginning to glow with the power of his Genstsatsu.

Naruto stood with a growl that would've stalled even the angriest bull, but was forced back down by some invisible force.

This time Sensei cackled; his voice was cold and evil.

"You can do nothing boy. This will end in the way a real battle should, death."

Hinata's eyes widened, he was actually planning on killing her.

Naruto strained against the force, pulling all of his physical strength into breaking free.

**KYUUBI**

The tree cracked and broke under the force of their leaps and bounds into the top-most branched of the tree where Kisho's office was nestled amongst the leaves.

With a snarl, Kyuubi landed in front of the elderly man's desk, the platform cracking under feet.

Kisho calmly looked up from his paperwork, as if the most powerful demon in the world had not just come crashing into his office with enough killing intent to freeze an entire army.

"Good morning Kyuubi-sama." Was all the man said.

"Don't give me that 'good morning' crap Kisho. What the hell do you mean by blessing the building at the base of the tree?"

Kisho just smiled beatifically at the demoness as Kitsu and Tsunade landed behind her, both of them looking ready to kill.

"It was an insurance policy."

"For WHAT!" shouted Kitsu, cracking his knuckles.

"To insure that Kyuubi-sama was set free; then she could become our guardian once more."

Silence met this announcement.

The three of them stared at the man in utter disbelief.

"Maki" Kyuubi whispered; her voice cracking.

In a small burst of fox-fire Kyuubi's son appeared, his two tails swaying.

"I need you to bring me the contract."

And without saying a word, the smaller fox demon vanished.

At the mention of the _contract_ Kisho's eyes crinkled closed in a smile that was hidden by his long beard.

"What is the contract?" asked Tsunade.

"It is the pact," replied Kisho, his voice cheery, "Signed by my great-grandfather and the Kyuubi. It stated all the terms by which the Kyuubi would guard this village and also the terms which she could forsake or destroy the village."

Kyuubi stood silent, all the while Kitsu and Tsunade stared at the old man.

Maki appeared in the same way as before, a scroll clamped tightly in his mouth.

**HINATA AND NARUTO**

Sensei sheathed his sword and prepared for iaijutsu, an art of drawing the sword lightning fast.

It was either life or death, if he missed, she would cut him down.

Hinata's eyes widened, she knew that she wasn't fast enough to dodge his sword and that his aim was dead on.

She could see his smirk; he knew that he speed was unbeatable.

Sighing she closed her eyes, centering herself. Her mind going over everything that had happened in the past few months; her ever-growing relationship with Naruto, meeting Kyuubi, meeting Kitsu and Tsunade. Naruto.

'_There's now way in hell that I'm leaving him._' She snarled in her thoughts.

"You can do it Hinata-chan!" Shouted Naruto from where he was held down, his strength and belief in her gave her courage.

"It's time to end this" Hinata said coolly.

Then, of all things, the man started to laugh. It was a cold, hard laugh.

"I thank the gods that this is how its going to happen." He said after gaining control over himself. "I was supposed to make this seem like an accident, but now I can just kill you like the bitch you are."

Naruto growled, deep in his throat, the demon energy that his body held, leaking into his normal Chakra.

"How can you do this?" said Hinata, a little shrilly.

Again the man laughed.

"I do this because I was ordered to. The elders approved of the idea and Kisho-sama was to carry out his plan."

**KYUUBI**

Kyuubi reached down and took the scroll from her son and looked at Kisho.

The man was smiling even more now, and was rummaging around in his large desk for something.

"For years I have dreamed of this moment." He said happily, pulling out a elaborate quill and ink well.

Kyuubi looked at the scroll in her hands, as if she was deciding was to do with it.

"Kyuubi-sama, is something wrong?" asked Kisho, though he was still smiling one could detect something else in his voice. "The sooner that we can sign the scroll, the sooner we can free you."

"I have kept this scroll for years…" was all Kyuubi said, still staring at the offending roll of paper. "I don't know why."

"But now you do." Replied Kisho impatiently. "Unroll it so that we can sign."

The Kyuubi raised her eyes to the man, they were hard as steel, flaming with anger.

"Had you ever actually read the scroll then you would know what I am about to do."

"I have read the scroll!" protested the old man, standing from his seat.

"NO YOU HAVENT!" roared Kyuubi, a wave of demonic Chakra forcing him

back down into his seat. "If you had, then you would know what you had done."

Kisho looked at her in horror.

"The boy is my son."

Kitsu and Tsunade flinched back from this announcement and what it meant.

"Surely he cannot be from your womb."

Kyuubi smiled and shook her head sadly.

"No, he was adopted, but also he has most of my Chakra and my _Hioshi-no-Tama_ so in essence he is me."

This time Kisho paled.

"You have broken the contract that I and your family signed. You have stated intentional and willful harm on my family and my person." Kyuubi charged the man, her hands now blazing with blood red flames. "I herby end my contract with you and your village." At this, the scroll in her hands disintegrated.

Kisho stared, his eyes wide and glazed over.

"And because of your actions, I decree that no demon, god, or natural creature will ever willingly deal with you or your village ever again. You will be forever isolated from the world so that your evil will not spread."

Kisho, stood, his agape. "You can't do that!" He shouted, his face changing from bright red to pale every few seconds.

Kyuubi gave him a dark look, sending shivers down his spine.

"I can, and I have." She said darkly.

And without another word, she turned and led Kitsu and Tsunade out of the tree office, leaving Kitsu gasping in his chair.

**NARUTO AND HINATA**

Hinata's arms were shaking; she was drawing on the last of her strength just to continue standing. Sensei knew that she was tiring, and was only trying to ensure her eventual death.

"You see, little girl, how foolish it was to challenge me." He sneered.

Hinata sighed, hoping that some of her strength would return in the little break between their clashes.

"And as I said before." Hinata gasped out through gritted teeth. "This is not the point of training. You were supposed to teach your sword techniques, not take to opportunity to beat us into submission."

Sensei's sneer faltered, and then dropped from his face entirely.

With one fluid motion he sheathed his sword again; clearly this was going to be the deciding blow.

Naruto's eyes widened from the sidelines, he knew what was going to happen; and he couldn't stand it. A life without Hinata was unfathomable, she was his light, his anchor in the world of good and right, without her he would've become a killer.

"NOOOO!" he screamed as Hinata, as she too readied for her final strike.

With one final breath, Hinata ran at Sensei, and jumped into the air, bringing her sword down to strike Sensei.

She also knew that she was leaping to her death.

And with one simple movement, Sensei drew his sword in a perfect, lightning fast iaijutsu.

Hinata could feel the blade cut into her torso, rending a huge gash from her lower right to her left shoulder; she hit the ground, gasping in pain as her life blood poured out of her.

**KYUUBI**

While walking back to the training grounds with Kitsu and Tsunade, Kyuubi stopped dead in her tracks, her face was completely devoid of color. Her eyes were distant.

"Kyuubi-sa-" Tsunade started to ask when Kyuubi just disappeared.

It was now Kitsu's turn to pale. "If she's disappeared that means that…" he trailed off.

Understanding dawned on Tsunade, and she swore, loudly.

The two of them began running as fast as they could toward the growing source of Chakra.

**NARUTO**

Naruto had stood, he was trembling, from anger or sadness, he couldn't tell. Hinata was dying in front of him, she had been injured because he couldn't fight Sensei.

"You are now free from you weakness." Said Sensei, shaking the excess blood off his blade. "Women are the source of man's weakness and are only good to be used for pleasure-"

He never finished, Naruto had put his had through the center of his chest, the Red Chakra pouring out of him, enveloping both Naruto and Sensei.

Sensei was gasping, blood trickling from his lips.

Naruto's eyes bored into Sensei's, all of the evil and darkness in his soul being forced into Sensei's subconscious.

In another surge of demonic Chakra, Sensei dissolved into the power, leaving only the sword witch cracked and broke into thousands of tiny pieces.

Once his mind registered that Sensei was no long impaled on his arm, Naruto had appeared by Hinata's side so fast that he left cloud of demonic Chakra behind.

"Hinata-chan…" he sobbed, cradling her to his chest, her blood staining his clothes. "Don't leave me… Please don't leave me…"

Hinata opened her eyes and smiled. "…Don't be… afraid Naru…to… kun." She lifted her hand to cup his cheek. "I'll… always… be… there for… you."

And her hand fell.

"Hinata-chan." Naruto called out, his heart dropping into his stomach, he patted her cheek. "HINATA!!!!"

Chakra began to pour out of him, this time is wasn't red, it was white. The purest white, without a hint of red or other color; it was pouring out and pooling about.

Kitsu and Tsunade arrived at the clearing right as Hinata's hand fell from Naruto's face; the Chakra was keeping them from entering.

Tsunade was crying, she could feel the sorrow and pain from Naruto, the world could feel it. As the container of the Kyuubi, he was tried to nature by his very existence, and because of this, nature responded to his pain. The animals of the forest had gathered to watch the scene unfold, there was silence, save for Naruto's gasps and sobs.

Naruto, shifted Hinata's body off of his lap, and stood shakily. He turned, his eyes unseeing and blank. He stumbled into the center of the clearing and sank to his knees, his hands trying to form seals, but could not remember how to.

Finally, he gave up and threw his head back and howled.

"INARI!!!!!!!"

All of the Chakra that had been pouring out of him erupted straight up in a great pillar of white light.

Naruto and Hinata's body were shrouded in a white light.

Somehow Hinata's prone form and move in front of him.

There was music coming from nowhere.

Then there was a woman in front of him, he was as white as a sheet and dressed in a flowing white kimono. She was ethereally beautiful with a golden light shining about her head.

_"Naruto" _she said in a kind voice, that warmed his soul. "_I am Ōhiru-menomuchi-no-kami, or Amaterasu._"

Naruto looked up at her, his eyes did not show recognition of the name. "I'm sorry… I-I-I don't-t kn-know you…" He sobbed.

She smiled at him.

"_Do not worry. I am here to oversee something that has not happened in over a millennia. Inari will be here soon._"

She knelt down in front of Naruto and traced her hand across the gash in Hinata's chest, it closed as her finger ran across it. "_It seems as though we kami have dealt you an unfair hand in life, and I plan to see to it that things improve."_

Slowly a white fox with shocking purple eyes, he looked at Amaterasu with a question in his eyes, he did not speak.

"_Yes Inari-chan, this is the mate of Kyuubi's container. She will be yours and when they pass you and your mate will return to us."_

Inari, sat on his haunches an nodded.

Smiling Amaterasu placed on hand on Inari's head and the other on Hinata's stomach; and in a flash of blinding white light, Inari was gone and there was a purple seal on Hinata now bare stomach.

Naruto stared at Hinata, then Amaterasu, then back at Hinata.

The goddess smiled as she felt life surge in the young woman.

Hinata opened her eyes to see Naruto looking back at her, relief evident in his face.

"Naruto-kun." She whispered, his hand once again cupping his cheek.

"_Ah… young love."_ Sighed Amaterasu happily. "_Call me once again when it is time for your unity._"

And she was gone.

The pillar of light that had been surrounding the two of them exploded outward, enveloping the whole forest and village.

Leaving the two of them curled up together, neither of them noticing that Hinata had grown a pair of long white fox's ears and a long fluffy white tail.

Author's Notes:

Well… It's been a long time hasn't it? Almost a year if my fiancé is correct. ;)

I don't know when I'll be able to update, but I will try to ASAP, this along with HiPS.

For my readers that also enjoy my Harry Potter Fics, I have some news. I will only be returning to two of my stories; _The Meaning of Truth_ and _Jeconais's Aftermath_ the other two, Second Chance and Gabrielle Delacour are discontinued until further notice.

Cheers

Aengus


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